The foundations of Sneak Hotep’s calligraphy lie across the clandestine graffiti culture of Algiers and the customs of ancient Egypt.
The Algerian artist, whose real name is Ahmed Amine Aitouche, is showcasing a series of works at Dubai Calligraphy Biennale, which runs until the end of the month at Dubai Design District.
The broad parallel strokes and crescent-like curves of Hotep’s calligraphy fall across his canvases with varying hues of blue and gold. The works' play on shades exudes an illusion of depth, projecting letterforms from the two-dimensionality of the canvas.
The rigid straight lines portray influences from the early Kufic script, which was prominent between the seventh and 10th centuries. However, instead of running across the horizontal plane, Hotep pronounces the vertical in his work. His letters also have more prominent tails than those found in the Kufic script.
The colours in Hotep’s work are inspired by ancient Egyptian palettes and stones like the lapis lazuli which, though not particularly rare, was a symbol of luxury and the divine.
“For me, the shades of blue are the basics of my preferences,” he tells The National. “My inspiration comes from ancient Egypt, where they’d have these rocks from which they’d extract pigments of paint. The turquoise, the gold, the deep and lapis blues are colours that were prevalent in ancient Egypt. You could see them on ornaments and jewellery.”
The arcs in his strokes, meanwhile, are inspired by the khopesh, a curved ancient Egyptian dagger. The sickle-formed weapon dates back to at least 2,500 BC and was shaped to disarm opponents of their shields or to lock their arms. It is after this dagger that Hotep has named his unique calligraphic form.
“It was imported from Sumeria,” Sneak Hotep says. “It was used against Egyptians and they adopted it with time. First, it wasn’t used in war. It was a symbol of triumph. That’s how I use it. For me, the letter is stronger than the sword. The impact that writing has is more important than that of weapons."
Hotep has been making a name for himself as a calligrapher and street artist for the past decade, producing works all over the world, including Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Madrid, Algiers and Paris.
He moved to Dubai six months ago but cut his teeth as an artist in 2005, tagging walls in the streets of Algiers when he was a teenager.
The artist’s two main influences are evident in his moniker. While Hotep comes from the ancient Egyptian term for "being at peace", the first half of his moniker alludes to his covert approach to producing graffiti in the Algerian capital. The process was a risky one and often resulted in him being apprehended by police.
“Graffiti was the way to express my freedom,” he says. “I was just tagging my name, Sneak, in the beginning. It was difficult to manage to do a simple tag. We’d have to spend nights in police stations and they always wanted to stick what I was doing to some political cause. They didn’t understand what I was doing. For them, expressing yourself on a wall was a political message.”
While his graffiti did not express discontent with any particular political entity in Algeria, Hotep says there is no denying there is an aspect to street art that is inherently political.
“Graffiti is political because you’re working against spaces used to brainwash people. I was seeing advertisements all over,” he says.
He adds that the advertisements made him realise that while there are those who share information in public spaces, there are also those who have something to say but don’t have the means to do it.
"They don’t have the money. With graffiti, you don’t have to have money to say something," he says, adding he could share his message for less than one dollar.
“There was nobody at the time doing graffiti,” he says. “The system was stronger than us because we were few. I started with my cousin when I was 13.
"We got some money for Eid Al Fitr. We went to the hardware store and picked some cans [of spray paint]. We bombed [tagged] a wall with our names. It ended up creating some noise in the neighbourhood. We liked that. I saw the impact of it.
"People were talking about it like it was an event. It was there that I realised what we could do with a simple spray.”
Hotep then began pursuing more formal avenues of expression, attending a fine arts school in Algeria to hone his craft as a calligrapher. Though he would still like to produce calligraphy in cities like New York and Bogota, for now, while living in Dubai, he is more keen on producing canvases and sculptural works that push the frontiers of calligraphy.
His intent is particularly noticeable with the installation Analepsis. A three-sided pillar of plywood adorned with his blue-hued letterforms, the piece is fitted with recycled motherboards at its centre, observable through gaps in the wood.
“I wanted to take calligraphy to another dimension,” he says. The art form, he says, is usually produced on a two-dimensional surface but he wanted it to be observable from multiple angles. Each of the sculpture’s three sides alludes to an aspect of time: past, present and future.
“Time is not linear,” he says. “I wanted to say that the aspects are not detached one from another. They come from the same essence, now.”
The inspiration for the piece came from an old cupboard in his grandfather’s house in Algeria. The family would store sentimental objects in the furniture piece, or “artefacts from our past. Objects that had emotional memories in them”.
The motherboards within the sculpture, which were supplied by Dubai Municipality, are meant to allude to the fact that most of our memories are now stored within computer chips and the cloud.
“Now we are counting on technology as a storage space to keep our memories,” he says. “Instead of cupboards, we are putting our memories in these chips. In the end, they will be thrown and they will be polluting [the environment].”
Participating in the inaugural Dubai Calligraphy Biennale has been an influential experience, Sneak Hotep says. The event has pushed him beyond his otherwise insular practice, connecting him with other artists and highlighting the range of possibilities within the art form.
“I don’t usually have time to see other artists’ works,” he says. “The platform permits artists to see other disciplines. I think this is very inspiring, the way they gathered us all on the same platform.”
Dubai Calligraphy Biennale runs across the city until October 31. More information is available at dubaicalligraphybiennale.com
First Person
Richard Flanagan
Chatto & Windus
HWJN
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Recent winners
2002 Giselle Khoury (Colombia)
2004 Nathalie Nasralla (France)
2005 Catherine Abboud (Oceania)
2007 Grace Bijjani (Mexico)
2008 Carina El-Keddissi (Brazil)
2009 Sara Mansour (Brazil)
2010 Daniella Rahme (Australia)
2011 Maria Farah (Canada)
2012 Cynthia Moukarzel (Kuwait)
2013 Layla Yarak (Australia)
2014 Lia Saad (UAE)
2015 Cynthia Farah (Australia)
2016 Yosmely Massaad (Venezuela)
2017 Dima Safi (Ivory Coast)
2018 Rachel Younan (Australia)
The years Ramadan fell in May
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Race card
5.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh82,500 (Turf) 1,400m
6.05pm: Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (T) 1,400m
6.40pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
7.15pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (T) 1,200m
7.50pm: Longines Stakes – Conditions (TB) Dh120,00 (D) 1,900m
8.25pm: Zabeel Trophy – Rated Conditions (TB) Dh120,000 (T) 1,600m
9pm: Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (T) 2,410m
9.35pm: Handicap (TB) Dh92,500 (T) 2,000m
UAE tour of Zimbabwe
All matches in Bulawayo
Friday, Sept 26 – UAE won by 36 runs
Sunday, Sept 28 – Second ODI
Tuesday, Sept 30 – Third ODI
Thursday, Oct 2 – Fourth ODI
Sunday, Oct 5 – First T20I
Monday, Oct 6 – Second T20I
EA Sports FC 26
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3/5
Winners
Best Men's Player of the Year: Kylian Mbappe (PSG)
Maradona Award for Best Goal Scorer of the Year: Robert Lewandowski (Bayern Munich)
TikTok Fans’ Player of the Year: Robert Lewandowski
Top Goal Scorer of All Time: Cristiano Ronaldo (Manchester United)
Best Women's Player of the Year: Alexia Putellas (Barcelona)
Best Men's Club of the Year: Chelsea
Best Women's Club of the Year: Barcelona
Best Defender of the Year: Leonardo Bonucci (Juventus/Italy)
Best Goalkeeper of the Year: Gianluigi Donnarumma (PSG/Italy)
Best Coach of the Year: Roberto Mancini (Italy)
Best National Team of the Year: Italy
Best Agent of the Year: Federico Pastorello
Best Sporting Director of the Year: Txiki Begiristain (Manchester City)
Player Career Award: Ronaldinho
Cinco in numbers
Dh3.7 million
The estimated cost of Victoria Swarovski’s gem-encrusted Michael Cinco wedding gown
46
The number, in kilograms, that Swarovski’s wedding gown weighed.
1,000
The hours it took to create Cinco’s vermillion petal gown, as seen in his atelier [note, is the one he’s playing with in the corner of a room]
50
How many looks Cinco has created in a new collection to celebrate Ballet Philippines’ 50th birthday
3,000
The hours needed to create the butterfly gown worn by Aishwarya Rai to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
1.1 million
The number of followers that Michael Cinco’s Instagram account has garnered.
WWE Evolution results
- Trish Stratus and Lita beat Alicia Fox and Mickie James in a tag match
- Nia Jax won a battle royal, eliminating Ember Moon last to win
- Toni Storm beat Io Shirai to win the Mae Young Classic
- Natalya, Sasha Banks and Bayley beat The Riott Squad in a six-woman tag match
- Shayna Baszler won the NXT Women’s title by defeating Kairi Sane
- Becky Lynch retained the SmackDown Women’s Championship against Charlotte Flair in a Last Woman Standing match
- Ronda Rousey retained the Raw Women’s title by beating Nikki Bella
Indika
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Profile of MoneyFellows
Founder: Ahmed Wadi
Launched: 2016
Employees: 76
Financing stage: Series A ($4 million)
Investors: Partech, Sawari Ventures, 500 Startups, Dubai Angel Investors, Phoenician Fund
China and the UAE agree comprehensive strategic partnership
China and the UAE forged even closer links between the two countries during the landmark state visit after finalising a ten-point agreement on a range of issues, from international affairs to the economy and trade and renewable energy.
1. Politics: The two countries agreed to support each other on issues of security and to work together on regional and international challenges. The nations also confirmed that the number of high-level state visits between China and the UAE will increase.
2. Economy: The UAE offers its full support to China's Belt and Road Initiative, which will combine a land 'economic belt" and a "maritime silk road" that will link China with the Arabian Gulf as well as Southeast, South and Central China, North Africa and, eventually, Europe.
3. Business and innovation: The two nations are committed to exploring new partnerships in sectors such as Artificial Intelligence, energy, the aviation and transport industries and have vowed to build economic co-operation through the UAE-China Business Committee.
4. Education, science and technology: The Partnership Programme between Arab countries in Science and Technology will encourage young Emirati scientists to conduct research in China, while the nations will work together on the peaceful use of nuclear energy, renewable energy and space projects.
5. Renewable energy and water: The two countries will partner to develop renewable energy schemes and work to reduce climate change. The nations have also reiterated their support for the Abu Dhabi-based International Renewable Energy Agency.
6. Oil and gas: The UAE and China will work in partnership in the crude oil trade and the exploration and development of oil and natural gas resources.
7. Military and law enforcement and security fields: Joint training will take place between the Chinese and UAE armed forces, while the two nations will step up efforts to combat terrorism and organised crime.
8. Culture and humanitarian issues: Joint cultural projects will be developed and partnerships will be cultivated on the preservation of heritage, contemporary art and tourism.
9. Movement between countries: China and the UAE made clear their intent to encourage travel between the countries through a wide-ranging visa waiver agreement.
10. Implementing the strategic partnership: The Intergovernmental Co-operation Committee, established last year, will be used to ensure the objectives of the partnership are implemented.
Huddersfield Town permanent signings:
- Steve Mounie (striker): signed from Montpellier for £11 million
- Tom Ince (winger): signed from Derby County for £7.7m
- Aaron Mooy (midfielder): signed from Manchester City for £7.7m
- Laurent Depoitre (striker): signed from Porto for £3.4m
- Scott Malone (defender): signed from Fulham for £3.3m
- Zanka (defender): signed from Copenhagen for £2.3m
- Elias Kachunga (winger): signed for Ingolstadt for £1.1m
- Danny WIlliams (midfielder): signed from Reading on a free transfer
More from Janine di Giovanni
Ten tax points to be aware of in 2026
1. Domestic VAT refund amendments: request your refund within five years
If a business does not apply for the refund on time, they lose their credit.
2. E-invoicing in the UAE
Businesses should continue preparing for the implementation of e-invoicing in the UAE, with 2026 a preparation and transition period ahead of phased mandatory adoption.
3. More tax audits
Tax authorities are increasingly using data already available across multiple filings to identify audit risks.
4. More beneficial VAT and excise tax penalty regime
Tax disputes are expected to become more frequent and more structured, with clearer administrative objection and appeal processes. The UAE has adopted a new penalty regime for VAT and excise disputes, which now mirrors the penalty regime for corporate tax.
5. Greater emphasis on statutory audit
There is a greater need for the accuracy of financial statements. The International Financial Reporting Standards standards need to be strictly adhered to and, as a result, the quality of the audits will need to increase.
6. Further transfer pricing enforcement
Transfer pricing enforcement, which refers to the practice of establishing prices for internal transactions between related entities, is expected to broaden in scope. The UAE will shortly open the possibility to negotiate advance pricing agreements, or essentially rulings for transfer pricing purposes.
7. Limited time periods for audits
Recent amendments also introduce a default five-year limitation period for tax audits and assessments, subject to specific statutory exceptions. While the standard audit and assessment period is five years, this may be extended to up to 15 years in cases involving fraud or tax evasion.
8. Pillar 2 implementation
Many multinational groups will begin to feel the practical effect of the Domestic Minimum Top-Up Tax (DMTT), the UAE's implementation of the OECD’s global minimum tax under Pillar 2. While the rules apply for financial years starting on or after January 1, 2025, it is 2026 that marks the transition to an operational phase.
9. Reduced compliance obligations for imported goods and services
Businesses that apply the reverse-charge mechanism for VAT purposes in the UAE may benefit from reduced compliance obligations.
10. Substance and CbC reporting focus
Tax authorities are expected to continue strengthening the enforcement of economic substance and Country-by-Country (CbC) reporting frameworks. In the UAE, these regimes are increasingly being used as risk-assessment tools, providing tax authorities with a comprehensive view of multinational groups’ global footprints and enabling them to assess whether profits are aligned with real economic activity.
Contributed by Thomas Vanhee and Hend Rashwan, Aurifer
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The team
Videographer: Jear Velasquez
Photography: Romeo Perez
Fashion director: Sarah Maisey
Make-up: Gulum Erzincan at Art Factory
Models: Meti and Clinton at MMG
Video assistant: Zanong Maget
Social media: Fatima Al Mahmoud
