A new public art piece on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi is allowing the bold, and occasionally beautiful, to really get their faces out there.
Since Saturday, a huge photo booth at Manarat Al Saadiyat has been churning out black-and-white, poster-sized mugshots of the UAE public. The idea: step in, get snapped and then paste your face directly on to the walls at the entrance of the exhibition space.
This initiative has been set up to attract a buzz ahead of Emirati Expressions, a group show of ten emerging local artists, due to open at Manarat Al Saadiyat a week from Wednesday, on October 19. The booth is the work of the French street artist JR and was previously situated in the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Keeping an enigmatic distance from the public eye - never revealing his real name and rarely doing interviews - JR has become known for creating instantaneous, abrasive black-and-white photographs of people in cities that he then pastes up directly on to walls around town. JR has often used this graffiti-esque aesthetic to provoke citizens into facing some of the flipside realities in the urban space around them. In 2007, for instance, JR worked on Face2Face, which saw the artist snap huge photographs of Israelis and Palestinians and then paste them up on either side of the separation barrier.
The booth in Abu Dhabi, despite being automated, spits out photographs that are remarkably in keeping with JR's style of portraiture.
Both Emirati Expressions and the photo booth are initiatives of the Tourism Development & Investment Company (TDIC). In previous years, Emirati Expressions has been an exhaustive roundup of UAE talent - an open-call exhibition that attracted a vast number of artists. This year, things are a little more focused, with Afra Al Dhaheri, Afra Bin Dhaher, Alia Al Shamsi, Ammar Al Attar, Fatima Al Yousef, Hadeyeh Badri, Lateefa Bint Maktoum, Maitha Demithan, Mira Obaid Al Qaseer and Salem Al Qassimi participating.
The six Emirati photographers have taken part in an extensive series of workshops this summer with the American photographer Stephen Shore, best known for turning his lens to the desolate, limitless highways that criss-cross backwater America. Flown over to the UAE, Shore has tried to provoke dialogue among the country's emerging talent about how art can develop its own culturally relevant voice. This, according to the artist, is all the more pertinent with photography as the medium can often impose itself on a subject, making it even more difficult for a budding photographer to carve out their own individual style.
How successful these workshops were remains to be seen, but the process of creating an artwork has been stressed throughout, with an onus put on how an image is produced rather than the final product.
The final show is spread across 10 individual gallery spaces, with artists Mohammed Mandi, Faiza Mubarak, Sheikha Wafa Hasher Al Maktoum, Hala Al-Ani, Riem Hassan and Firas Bardan involved in branding and crafting the visual identity of the exhibition. The Emiratis will display their work alongside pieces by Stephen Shore and JR, as well as a selection of new works by the photographer Tarek Al Ghoussein, commissioned by TDIC, a Palestinian artist who also teaches at the American University of Sharjah.
The photo booth is now installed in Manarat Al Saadiyat, open between 10am and 10pm. Emirati Expressions runs in the gallery from October 19-January 28, 2012. www.artsabudhabi.ae
The biog
Family: He is the youngest of five brothers, of whom two are dentists.
Celebrities he worked on: Fabio Canavaro, Lojain Omran, RedOne, Saber Al Rabai.
Where he works: Liberty Dental Clinic
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How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The biog
Hobby: "It is not really a hobby but I am very curious person. I love reading and spend hours on research."
Favourite author: Malcom Gladwell
Favourite travel destination: "Antigua in the Caribbean because I have emotional attachment to it. It is where I got married."
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Race card
6.30pm: Maiden (TB) Dh 82,500 (Dirt) 1.600m
7.05pm: Maiden (TB) Dh 82,500 (D) 2,000m
7.50pm: Handicap (TB) Dh 82,500 (D) 1,600m
8.15pm: The Garhoud Sprint Listed (TB) Dh 132,500 (D) 1,200m
8.50pm: The Entisar Listed (TB) Dh 132,500 (D) 2,000m
9.25pm: Conditions (TB) Dh 120,000 (D) 1,400m
THE%20HOLDOVERS
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Company%20Profile
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Pakistan World Cup squad
Sarfraz Ahmed (c), Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Abid Ali, Babar Azam, Haris Sohail, Shoaib Malik, Mohammad Hafeez(subject to fitness), Imad Wasim, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Faheem Ashraf, Junaid Khan, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Mohammad Hasnain
Two additions for England ODIs: Mohammad Amir and Asif Ali
CREW
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Women’s T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier
ICC Academy, November 22-28
UAE fixtures
Nov 22, v Malaysia
Nov 23, v Hong Kong
Nov 25, v Bhutan
Nov 26, v Kuwait
Nov 28, v Nepal
ICC T20I rankings
14. Nepal
17. UAE
25. Hong Kong
34. Kuwait
35. Malaysia
44. Bhutan
UAE squad
Chaya Mughal (captain), Natasha Cherriath, Samaira Dharnidharka, Kavisha Egodage, Mahika Gaur, Priyanjali Jain, Suraksha Kotte, Vaishnave Mahesh, Judit Peter, Esha Rohit, Theertha Satish, Chamani Seneviratne, Khushi Sharma, Subha Venkataraman
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Godzilla%20x%20Kong%3A%20The%20New%20Empire
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The Perfect Couple
Starring: Nicole Kidman, Liev Schreiber, Jack Reynor
Creator: Jenna Lamia
Rating: 3/5
Profile box
Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)
Red Sparrow
Dir: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Joel Egerton, Charlotte Rampling, Jeremy Irons
Three stars
Our legal columnist
Name: Yousef Al Bahar
Advocate at Al Bahar & Associate Advocates and Legal Consultants, established in 1994
Education: Mr Al Bahar was born in 1979 and graduated in 2008 from the Judicial Institute. He took after his father, who was one of the first Emirati lawyers
The Buckingham Murders
Starring: Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ash Tandon, Prabhleen Sandhu
Director: Hansal Mehta
Rating: 4 / 5
Padmaavat
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Starring: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Jim Sarbh
3.5/5
'My Son'
Director: Christian Carion
Starring: James McAvoy, Claire Foy, Tom Cullen, Gary Lewis
Rating: 2/5
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Champion%20v%20Champion%20(PFL%20v%20Bellator)
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Company: Instabug
Founded: 2013
Based: Egypt, Cairo
Sector: IT
Employees: 100
Stage: Series A
Investors: Flat6Labs, Accel, Y Combinator and angel investors
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.
Easter%20Sunday
%3Cp%3EDirector%3A%20Jay%20Chandrasekhar%3Cbr%3EStars%3A%20Jo%20Koy%2C%20Tia%20Carrere%2C%20Brandon%20Wardell%2C%20Lydia%20Gaston%3Cbr%3ERating%3A%203.5%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
The Penguin
Starring: Colin Farrell, Cristin Milioti, Rhenzy Feliz
Creator: Lauren LeFranc
Rating: 4/5
How do Sim card scams work?
Sim swap frauds are a form of identity theft.
They involve criminals conning mobile phone operators into issuing them with replacement Sim cards by claiming to be the victim, often pretending their phone has been lost or stolen in order to secure a new Sim.
They use the victim's personal details - obtained through criminal methods - to convince such companies of their identity.
The criminal can then access any online service that requires security codes to be sent to a user's mobile phone, such as banking services.
How to help
Send “thenational” to the following numbers or call the hotline on: 0502955999
2289 – Dh10
2252 – Dh 50
6025 – Dh20
6027 – Dh 100
6026 – Dh 200
