In a lofty warehouse in Dubai’s industrial zone, temporary home to a time-lapse video, a wall painting and an oversized sculpture of a concrete breeze block, time and space certainly do matter.
The curators Noor Al Suwaidi and Maisa Al Qassimi have explored these universal and scientific concepts in an exhibition of the same name that opened in Project D studios on March 9. Although art-lovers’ calendars are well and truly packed for the next couple of weeks, it is worth taking a trip into the dusty reaches of Al Quoz to visit Time and Space Matter.
On the back wall, and luring the visitor in with its striking beauty, is Homosapiens (Wise Humans), in which Shamma Al Amri explores her fascination with a lonely blogger she found on the internet and the work of Stephen Hawking. “He [Hawking] advocates the analogy of the goldfish in a bowl that has its own set of physics and laws and a distorted view of reality,” Al Amri explains. “He applies that metaphor to humans as they comprehend time and change.”
In charcoal and directly onto the wall – in itself a nod to the temporal nature of the work – Al Amri has drawn a fish, which appears to be swimming towards us. She has tangled its fins with the hair of a woman, an image inspired by a stranger who wrote a detailed blog about her life that nobody read. “I am trying to show the human condition of change,” she says. “Even the materials I use are impermanent, meaning that over the period of the exhibition, things will change – there is no certainty.
“I have a continued obsession with time passing because I grew up in a city of rapid change and fast development and it affected me,” she adds.
In the centre of the experimental space, of which this exhibition is only its second, is Zeinab Al Hashemi’s Monolith Pillar. The three-metre high recreation of a concrete block is a stark and solid contrast to Al Amri’s dreamy depiction, and along with a minimised version of a cement mixer titled Urban Morphology, is intended as a representation of the area. “People are part of their surroundings and part of their space,” says Al Hashemi. “My work is related to that.”
Al Hashemi, who is also exhibiting in this year’s Design Days Dubai and the Sharjah Biennial, is something of an emerging talent and her commitment to her trade is palpable in her words.
“The first ideas you have for any project are not the right ones. I need to take them much further and pave the path until I find something that is more than personal. I am interested in site-specific work because I want to grab an audience that might not be interested in a painting or a drawing and present other things as art.”
From quantum physics to the building blocks of a generation, in just three pieces of art, Al Suwaidi and Al Qassimi have achieved their task of conveying a concept many would shy away from tackling. In a city awash with international art, it might be worth taking the time (and space) to remember the talents we have closer to home.
Time and Space Matter is showing until April 18 at Project D, Capital D Studios, Al Quoz, Dubai
aseaman@thenational.ae
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
A State of Passion
Directors: Carol Mansour and Muna Khalidi
Stars: Dr Ghassan Abu-Sittah
Rating: 4/5
'Moonshot'
Director: Chris Winterbauer
Stars: Lana Condor and Cole Sprouse
Rating: 3/5
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
The specs
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Torque: 760Nm from 3,000-5,750rpm
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Price: From Dh1.05 million ($286,000)
Read more about the coronavirus
Top tips
Create and maintain a strong bond between yourself and your child, through sensitivity, responsiveness, touch, talk and play. “The bond you have with your kids is the blueprint for the relationships they will have later on in life,” says Dr Sarah Rasmi, a psychologist.
Set a good example. Practise what you preach, so if you want to raise kind children, they need to see you being kind and hear you explaining to them what kindness is. So, “narrate your behaviour”.
Praise the positive rather than focusing on the negative. Catch them when they’re being good and acknowledge it.
Show empathy towards your child’s needs as well as your own. Take care of yourself so that you can be calm, loving and respectful, rather than angry and frustrated.
Be open to communication, goal-setting and problem-solving, says Dr Thoraiya Kanafani. “It is important to recognise that there is a fine line between positive parenting and becoming parents who overanalyse their children and provide more emotional context than what is in the child’s emotional development to understand.”
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Game Changer
Director: Shankar
Stars: Ram Charan, Kiara Advani, Anjali, S J Suryah, Jayaram
Rating: 2/5
Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre twin-turbo V8
Power: 611bhp
Torque: 620Nm
Transmission: seven-speed automatic
Price: upon application
On sale: now
Vidaamuyarchi
Director: Magizh Thirumeni
Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra
Rating: 4/5
