Shirazeh Houshiary is a London-based Iranian artist who rose to prominence in the 1980s as a sculptor and is perhaps most famous for designing the new church window of the St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London, which was installed in 2008. She visited Abu Dhabi Art to give a talk in the auditorium and here we caught up with her for a quick interview:
Q: Is this your first time in Abu Dhabi?
A: This is my first time here but my second time in the UAE. It is a new discovery for me.
Q: What is your opinion of the art scene here?
A: I think this is a new model that has never happened anywhere else before. Usually there is a group of artists who get together and create a situation and all the other people move in but here you have the reverse. It is a new model that nobody is familiar with, it is an experiment and we don't know what will happen. We will find out in 20 years time.
Q: Is this unique to the region?
A: Well I think it is happening all over the world that people are creating new models and new cities. In the past it all happened organically but here everything is organised and gridded and decided before. It is interesting to see where it will go. I don't want to make a judgement at this stage because I think you can't and human beings have the tendency to reject what they don't know.
Q: Why are you here?
A: I am here to give a talk about my work. I showed one of my early films and a series of my work from over the years. In a way it was an introduction about who I am and my work.
Q: Can you describe your work?
A: The kind of work I do is contemporary and meditative and I think people need time to take it in and enjoy the silence of it.
Q: Your church window is perhaps your most famous work. Can you describe the process?
A: After I won the competition it took two years to complete because I had to get the right team together. Almost everyone was against it because, as I said, it is easy to reject anything new. There was only one priest who was with me and so we continued and eventually got it done. Of course now, everyone loves it but this is the reality of life.
Q: Do you feel defined by it?
A: Well, no I don't want to be that is not be because that is not only what I am about. But that is more visual and it is in a public place where thousands of people see it every day so I think that is why people know me for it. Maybe I can't escape it but I don't mind. I am very proud of the work and the way it turned out.
* The works of Lisson Gallery can be viewed in Hall Two, stand 21.
* Abu Dhabi Art continues today until 10pm and tomorrow from 2pm-10pm at Manarat Al Saadiyat
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Real estate tokenisation project
Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.
The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.
Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
How much sugar is in chocolate Easter eggs?
- The 169g Crunchie egg has 15.9g of sugar per 25g serving, working out at around 107g of sugar per egg
- The 190g Maltesers Teasers egg contains 58g of sugar per 100g for the egg and 19.6g of sugar in each of the two Teasers bars that come with it
- The 188g Smarties egg has 113g of sugar per egg and 22.8g in the tube of Smarties it contains
- The Milky Bar white chocolate Egg Hunt Pack contains eight eggs at 7.7g of sugar per egg
- The Cadbury Creme Egg contains 26g of sugar per 40g egg
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
