The Continuous Cycle by Rebecca Rendell

The Continuous Cycle (2011), Dimensions: 62 x 62 cm | Materials: Pins, Glue, Found Objects | "When you stand on the edge of the ocean or looking out over a sea of sand dunes, there is an overwhelming sense of scale, you feel small. In contrast, you can look down at the ground, and pick up a seashell or the body of a dead sand beetle, and examine the patterns and details of these beautiful forms. You have two contrasting perspectives of the natural world, the great and the small."

The Continuous Cycle is a new solo exhibition by Rebecca Rendell currently running at Tashkeel till 28th February. It features found objects and mixed media installations with an intricate attention to detail.

The exhibition invites us to take a moment to contemplate the ordinary by displaying objects using nature’s patterns to depict the continuous cycle of life, providing us with a fresh look at art with a disciplined simplicity that is a key element in her work. 

I like to examine the interconnectedness of the natural world and the relationships between art, ecology and geometry. This research has led me to visit ancient geometry and pattern theories. My previous experience in textile art has also influenced my pattern making, with repetition, control and order all playing important roles in my practice and concepts. Rebecca Rendell

Dentition Cabinet (2011), Dimensions: 74 x 67 cm | Materials: Wood, Teeth, Glass, Paint. | "These strange little objects, essential for our survival, are the things that survive longest after we go. Camel, Fish, Goat, Fox and Human Teeth are just a few of the 300 teeth contained in this cabinet, collected throughout 2011 around the United Arab Emirates and during my travels." 

Here are some photos from the exhibition by Darwin Guevarra.
 

© Darwin Guevarra

© Darwin Guevarra

© Darwin Guevarra

Event details:
Date: Exhibition is on till 28th February

Venue: Tashkeel, Nad Al Sheba, Dubai   (location map) 

www.rebeccarendell.com 
www.tashkeel.org
www.darwinguevarra.me

Inside Sajja | A Labor of Light at Gulf Photo Plus

© Roshan Ali

Inside Sajja | A Labor of Light is a photography exhibition currently running at Gulf Photo Plus. It's quite a special exhibition that was a result of a collaboration between Gulf Photo Plus and Adopt-a-Camp, a non-profit organization that provides everything from basic necessities to emotional support and encouragement to migrant workers across the United Arab Emirates who are broke, stranded, living in poor conditions.

Karen Dias, a documentary photographer became aware of a group of abandoned migrant workers at a labour camp called Sajja in Sharjah through Adopt-a-Camp. She proposed to share her photography skills with these men, through donated cameras and photography workshops.

This resulted into a photography series taken by the men, from posed snapshots to compelling story-telling images of their everyday lives at the camp.

Karen Dias wanted to share these images with the public, hence the exhibition. Her aim is to generate income for the men in Sajja. The photos displayed at the exhibition are available for sale (AED 400 for the 57x38 cm prints and AED 20 for the postcard-sized prints also available for 20 AED). All proceeds from the print sales will be distributed directly and evenly to the workers involved in the project.

I went on the opening night and was really impressed with the photos. Some very honest work and you can see how proud the men were with their work. I hope they get to continue enjoying photography and expressing themselves through their photos.

I strongly recommend you go to this exhibition before it ends on 29th February. 

© Sonnat Ali

© Roshan Ali

© Kosar Miah

Event details
Exhibition is on till 29th February, 10am to 7pm Sunday - Thursday; 10am to 6pm on Saturdays
Venue: Gulf Photo Plus, Alserkal Avenue, Unit D36, Street 8, Al Quoz 1, Dubai (location map)

www.gulfphotoplus.com 
www.karendiasphotography.com
www.openeyestobeginjourney.tumblr.com
Adopt-a-Camp on Facebook 

The Animals and Children took to the Streets at DUCTAC

1927 is an award winning theatre company known for their shows that mix live music, storytelling and performance with animation. They will be performing their critically acclaimed show The Animals and Children took to the Streets at DUCTAC this week, from Thursday 23rd till Saturday 25th February.   
 

The Animals and Children took to the Streets tells the story of Agnes Eaves and her daughter who live in Bayou Mansions, a decrepit tenement block with a sinister air. The imaginary setting emphasises the timeless nature of its themes, as the characters navigate government oppression and the paranoia of inner-city life. Visually inventive and filled with live music and song, this show doesn't rely on the English language and is suitable for a wide age range.

Looks like it will be a lot of fun to watch live. Here's the trailer: 

Here's a short video featuring Suzanne Andrade from 1927 talking about the show.  

The Animals and Children took to the Streets looks like it's a must see. If you are in Dubai, try not to miss it.

 

Event details
Dates:
Thursday, 23rd February at 7.30pm
Friday, 24th Februay at 2.30pm and 7.30pm
Saturday, 25th February at 2.30pm and 7.30pm

Venue: Kilachand Studio, DUCTAC in Mall of the Emirates, Dubai (location map)

Ticket: AED 80

www.ductac.org 
www.19-27.co.uk

DUST: The Beirut Groove Collective at The Music Room on 17th February

DUST is a recent addition to the party scene in Dubai, aiming to host events that aims to provide music lovers a different experience with a diverse music policy ranging from hip hop, to boogie, to bass music and back again. Basically what you can't experience at many clubs in the city.

This month DUST will be hosting their event at The Music Room on Friday 17th Februay, presenting The Beirut Groove Collective, "purveyours of the finest in Rare Groove, Funk, Soul, Hip hop, & Disco". The night will also feature the DUST DJs - Megadon Betamax, James Locksmith, DJ Solo aka Wriggly Scott, Ian Yeti.


Here's a short clip from DUST's launch night last September to give you a taste of what to expect. 

The Beirut Groove Collective (BGC) was established in 2009 by two of Lebanon’s pioneer DJs - Ernesto Chahoud & Rami Obeid, with the support of other artists - Ramsay Short , VJ Nadim Saoma, Filmaker Helena Forsell and painter/trombonist Tom Young.

The goal of the BGC was and is simple: to document, promote and preserve the best in African and African-influenced musical traditions - particularly Black American musical strains - jazz, rhythm and blues, soul, funk, rare-groove and hip-hop.

BGC began a humble attempt to do something new in Beirut - organizing “house-party” events with a premium on utilizing unique alternative, community-oriented spaces such as a ramshackled fairground as a means of drawing parallels to the underground funk and soul parties that used to occur in the major urban centers of America and Africa in the 1970s.

Here's a short film about BGC and hope it will encourage you to check out their gig at The Music Room. I know I'm looking forward to it.

Event details
Date: Friday, 17th February. Doors open a 9pm.
Venue: The Music Room, Majestic Hotel, Bur Dubai (location map)
Tickets: AED 50

www.dustdxb.com
www.thebgc.posterous.com
wwwsoundcloud.com/megadonbetamax
www.jameslocksmith.net
www.wrigglyscott.com
www.tenthousandyen.com
www.themusicroomdubai.com

Lazzy Lung at Pyramids Rooftop Gardens on 17th February

Lazzy Lung is a Canadian/Lebanese band based in Beirut. They won last year's Rolling Stone Middle East's Battle of the Bands and they're back again in Dubai this Friday at the Pyramids Rooftop Gardens in Wafi. Their influences include The Foo Fighters, Arcade Fire, Collective Soul and Broken Social Scene. I heard they are quite good live, so if your ears are starving to hear some original live music, this might be the gig for you.

About the band:

Lazzy Lung a once upon a time solo project now turned four piece rock outfit is floating about between Canadian and Lebanese borders. It seems as though Lazzy Lung has settled down on the beachy shores of Beirut taking their chances with political instability and language barriers and an outrageous hotel bill.

The band has just released their debut album Strange Places in Lebanon and soon to be available at a local shawarma place near you. The album tells a story of a 20 something traveling overseas from one capital city to another leaving all that he knew and loved behind. The story unfolds as most do with with twists and turns and changes of heart, great distances tearing lovers apart. The city finally sings its song and new beginnings come along, a new home is found.

Playing rock music in Lebanon is like wearing cowboy boots to a beach party. We know it's a challenge, we know it doesn't make sense, we know it's full of Strange Places.

You can download "Strange places" on iTunes.

Event details 

Date and time: Friday, 17th February 2012 at 8.00pm

Venue: Pyramids Rooftop Gardens at Wafi, Dubai (location map)

Free entry.

www.lazzylung.com
www.twitter.com/lazzylung

Almost, Maine at DUCTAC

Drama Dubai's Desert Players is a not for profit group on a mission to raise the standard of local theatre and to nurture a growing theater scene in Dubai without having to outsource the talent from the UK which is what every other production in Dubai does.

For this Valentine's Day week, they present us with Almost, Maine - a play by John Cariani from 14th-18th February at DUCTAC in Mall of the Emirates.

About Almost Maine  (via almostmaine.com)

On a cold, clear, moonless Friday night in the middle of the night, all is not quite what it seems in the remote, mythical town of Almost, Maine. As the northern lights hover in the star-filled sky above, residents of Almost find themselves in and out of love in unexpected and often hilarious ways. Knees are bruised, hearts are broken. Love is lost, found, and confounded. But the bruises heal and the hearts mend - almost.

Event details
Dates: 14th-18th February
Tickets: Show only AED 100 per person
         Valentines Dinner and Show on 14th February, AED 415
         Dinner and Show 16th-18th February 310 AED
Venue:  Play at DUCTAC in Mall of the Emirates (location map)
        Dinner at K-Grill, Kempinski Hotel, Mall of the Emirates

Tickets available online at TimeOut Tickets or at the DUCTAC box office.

www.dramaworkshopsdubai.com
wwwdramaworkshopsdubai.com/blog
www.almostmaine.com
www.ductac.org

Slidefest VI - 8th February 2012

© Nikolai Kozak

Slidefest is back after a long break with its 6th edition on Wednesday 8th February with a line up of interesting photographers. If you are not familiar with Slidefest, it's an event organised by Gulf Photo Plus where photographers present their personal projects in a variety of genres that can range from documentary projects to fine art, still-life and landscape images. The event also aims to bring photographers (amateurs and pros) and people from the photography community together where people can network, connect and share stories.

Here's the line up of presenters:

Ammar Al Attar

© Ammar Al Attar  Shooting in his home country here in the UAE, Al Attar's series titled Spare Parts focuses on scrap yards full of countless automotive parts.  Stacked skye high, the abundance of items speaks of the exaggerated the auto industry and also the people who work within it.  www.ammaralattar.com

Arezu

© Arezu

Arezu's work, titled Trespassing is rooted in concepts of obscurity and ambiguity.  Vague portraits represent a desire to be, but not seeking to be seen or to be paid attention to.  The crow in her work expresses her fascination with the freedom of flying and anonymity. www.arezuk.com

Mansoor Bhatti and Noush Like Sploosh

© Mansoor Bhatti and Noush Like Sploosh

Presenting a collaborative project, Bhatti and Noush will describe their photographic approach to the stop motion video for song 3 Act Circus by Noush Like Sploosh.  The music video which was released in March of last year was accepted later that year into the Gulf Film Festival.  www.facebook.com/noushlikesploosh

Lee Hoagland
© Lee Hoagland

This body of work examines the life of undocumented immigrants living in an abandoned factory in Paris. Immigration is a massive issue in Europe, and particularly in France, where many believe it has reached a stalemate. www.leehoagland.com



Nikolai Kozak

© Nikolai Kozak

Kozak will present a a study of Umm Al Quwain titled Forgotten. In black and white, the photos depict daily life in the emirate introducing fundamental social forces at play on a local, and daily, level.   Recent founder of NYUAD Photographic Society. www.nikolaikozak.com

Shahid Mohammed

© Shahid Mohammed

Where the majority us find ourselves locked into the link of modern technology, Mehrab lives his life at the other end of the spectrum. Mohammed's photographic story describes one man's life in the middle of desert; a camel caretaker living in a date palm hut. www.strandedsymphonies.photoshelter.com



Golnaz Olya

© Golnaz Olya

Originally form Iran, Olya began shooting Parkour roughly four years ago. Capturing her subjects flying through mid-air amidst an urban Tehran landscape, Olya depicts a perspective of Iran not so commonly portrayed. www.golnazolya.com

Silvia Razgova

© Silvia Razgova

Defining the last fifty odd years have been a generation know as the baby-boomers.  Now reaching retirement and beyond, the "boomers" now redefine death much like they have redefined the culture they lived within. Razgova's presents her series Death Boom in her own photo-journalist approach. www.silviarazgova.com





Event details:
Date: Wednesday, 8th February at 7pm
Location: Knowledge Village Auditorium, Dubai (location map)
Free entry

www.gulfphotoplus.com

Breathing Space by Driss Ouadahi

Lueurs pour la nuit, 2010. 190x240cm oil on canvas.

Breathing Space by Driss Ouadahi at Lawrie Shabibi will open on 6th February and will run till 14th March. Ouadahi's subject matter is "the lost idealism of the modern architecture in the mode of Le Corbusier and the metropolises that were made in its image" - I'm quite drawn by this set of work. Amidst the beautiful colours and patterns in his paintings, there's something unsettling about them.

Ouadahi's paintings of repetitive grids and walls have an unnerving absence of human life and are discreet observations of urban alienation and the isolation and disconnection that exist in many modern cities today, particularly in lower quality housing developments.  In this exhibition we see sterile modernist public housing developments, wire netting and underground passageways, each linked with Ouadahi's core concerns of geometric abstraction, transparency, opacity or reflection.

Breathing Space, 2011. 190x240cm oil on canvas.

Ouadahi's large formal urban landscapes are montages of spaces and places he knows. In the foreground of these works is a grid pattern, which seems at once a barrier between the viewer and the background architectural elements and a surface in which the scene is reflected. In his other works, Ouadahi is preoccupied with facets that separate the buildings or link them together, such as fences, walls and underground passageways.

His freehand paintings of wire-netting are lavished in such detail that they nudge photo-realism: these fences are common in the metropolitan suburbs of France and Algeria, demarking privileged zones into which entry is not permitted or from which escape is difficult. His underground passageways on the other hand have an air of eerie expectation - a crime scene waiting to happen - and resonate remoteness and seclusion.

 

Over the fences, 2010. 200x180cm oil on canvas.

Event details
Date: 6th February - 14th March 2012. Opening reception on 6th February, 7-9pm.
Venue: Lawrie Shabibi, Unit 21, Al-Serkal Avenue, Al Quoz, Dubai (location map)
Phone: +9714 346 9906  

www.lawrieshabibi.com
www.nadour.org/artists/driss-ouadahi

[Images and text courtesy of Lawrie Shabibi.]

Fakie and Skate Biladi at Tashkeel

Romela Elenzano Orencillo

Fakie by Fn Designs is a skateboard art exhibition currently running at Tashkeel till 18th February. The first edition was in held in May and this year's edition includes 30 skateboards that were donated by Maysam Faraj of Skate Arabia. His old, worn-out and borken skateboards have all been turned into a piece of art (including a couple of clothing accessories) by 30 different artists based in the United Arab Emirates.

Skateboarding has been a part of my life for about seventeen years, and it has changed me in every conceivable way. Through it, my eyes have been opened to a view of the world people seldom get to experience. Most of all, it has taught me that through destruction comes creation. With skateboarding you tear through streets and, to the outside world, leave destruction in your wake. Your shoes and flesh become scratched and torn. Slamming into the sidewalk, and scuffing paint off handrails, or curbs, you are often only seen for the havoc you wreak. For the one riding the board, controlling it with every part of your soul, it is more. More than a sport or a lifestyle, it is an art form.

Every skateboard I have owned has been my means of creation, until it too is destroyed. To see my boards, that have been broken and splintered while aiding me in my craft, be transformed by other artists, is almost a magical continuation of their cycle. They can now continue to challenge ideas and opinions, inspiring and leaving an impression on the world. Maysam Faraj

Lamia Abdulaziz Khan

Mohammed Hindash

Alongside this exhibition is Skate Biladi (which means Skate My Country in Arabic), a "social media skateboard experiment" that brings us the culture of skateboarding which is still in its early stages in Dubai. A very large skateboard ramp called the Tashkeel Art Ramp has been built for this event. The ramp makes up the word Tashkeel in Arabic, which is the name of the venue. It looks quite cool and I've seen the skateboarders having a lot of fun on it.

There have been quite a few events and workshops since the ramp was opened on early Januray. The closing event will be held on 17th February and everyone is invited to attend to take photos with their smartphones, upload them to Facebook and tag the person skateboarding as well as Tashkeel. The aim is to accumulate “likes” based on those photos throughout the night.

The accumulated “likes”, along with the photos, will be displayed in real time on screens surrounding the Tashkeel Art Ramp so skaters can see their ranking and adjust their performance and interaction with the photographers to increase their “likes.”  The skaters with the most “likes” at the end of the night, as well as the photographers who get the most “likes” for their photos, will be awarded amazing prizes.

I do find the social media angle a bit gimmicky - but will be fun to see all the action on the ramp. The event will include a barbecue and a DJ playing some tunes - so it should be a fun evening.

Here are a couple of videos of the Tashkeel Art Ramp.

Event details
Fakie exhibition - running till 18th February, 10am-10pm
Skate Biladi - 17th February, 2pm-10pm
Venue - Tashkeel, Nad Al Sheba, Dubai (location map)
Free entry

www.fndesigns.blogspot.com
www.facebook.com/skatebiladi
www.facebook.com/tashkeelhub
www.tashkeel.org

GENIUS - an illustration exhibition

 

Genius is a new illustration exhibition that opens on Wednesday, 1st February at Cartoon Art Gallery in Dubai. Curated by The Domino, an artist-run creative management and outreach company, it features 28 illustrators based in the United Arab Emirates. 

The exhibition will showcase over 60 pieces of work that explore and challenge definitions of illustration, its origins and its future - from caricatures to commercial illustration to fine art and to work that is pushing the boundaries of the medium.


List of artists taking part in Genius:
Adnan Arif, Ali Murad, Anas Awad, Bob Dahm, Deform Industry, Dina Khorchid, Dina Sami, Ella Orencillo, Flordeliza Pesigan, German Fernandez, Guillermo Munro, Julia Townsend (in collab. with Lewis Castaneda and Raymond Prucher), Khalid Mezaina, Kristy Anne Ligones, Layan Attari, Liz Ramos, Luis Vasquez, Mandana Ziaei, Maria Neschetna, Mark Ganzon, Mohammed Hindash, Nasim Abaein, Ragini Nagu, Sasan Saidi, Stefan Messam, Tulip Hazbar, Victoria Viray, Wafa Hasher Al Maktoum
 

The exhibition will be accompanied by two workshops:

1. Sketchbook Session 
Saturday, 11th February at 2pm

A one-day interactive and social event where illustrators will share and circulate their sketchbooks. The session will also include:

• presentations by select illustrators about their careers and the works of other illustrators
• short video interview viewing with famous
• discussion about the growing scene of illustration in the UAE and a brainstorm session about what illustrator need to grow and support this community
• a live collaborative illustration

2. Discussions in Illustration
Saturday, 18th February at 2pm 

A panel of professionals will lead discussion around the following topics:

• the pencil and the mouse - the role of technology in illustration
• how to make money and stay quirky - careers in illustration and challenges faced by freelancers
• illustrartists - the illustrator as artist and the role of illustration in the art world
• illustration off the page: the use of illustration in unconventional places ie. graffiti, tattoos, animation, etc.

Each session costs AED 80 or AED 130 for both. 
To register, send an email to info@thedomino.org.

 

Event details
Exhibition: 1st-29th February 2012 (opening reception on 1st February at 7.30pm)
Workshops: Sketchbook Session on 11th February at 2pm and Discussions in Illustration on 18th February at 2pm
Venue: Cartoon Art Gallery, 4B Street, Al Quoz 1, Dubai (location map) 
Phone: 04 346 6467

www.thedomino.org
www.cartoonartgallery.org