Collaboration is the name of the game for Noor Al Dabbagh, the curator of the exhibition “Once Upon DESIGN: New Routes for Arabian Heritage” at 1971 Design Space in Sharjah, which features seven installations exploring traditional and customary elements of the Gulf through architecture, product and graphic design.
The exhibition opened on March 3 and the sense of play and exuberance is very much evident as you meander through the display.
Al Dabbagh, through her curatorial platform Banafsajeel, spent a year of research exploring the theme of “Reinventing Heritage” with designers in the Gulf and interviewed 30 of them. A couple of focus groups were hosted by 1971 Design Space before the core group for this show was formed with seven interactive installations proposing various new routes and sensibilities, responding to age-old traditions and customs by enhancing, altering or subverting them.
The name Banafsajeel is derived from the Arabic word for the colour violet and also translates as “in the breath of a generation”. It contributes to and supports the creative movements taking shape in the GCC region.
Unique moment
“Reflecting a unique moment in the Gulf contemporary design scene, this is an exhibition to see, experience and touch,” says Al Dabbagh, who graduated from Harvard with an honours degree in Visual and Environmental Studies and a Masters Degree in Art Business at the Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London.
“The designers featured here are more interested in the intangible traditions — customs, culture and community — than the obvious outward symbols. Because they were collaborating between each other and across disciplines, they could imagine new ways of expressing the intangible.”
Al Dabbagh’s views are reinforced by Maha N. Al Sudairi, CEO and innovation director of Jedddah-based Think Tank Co. “First of all, there’s a lot of enthusiasm about the cutting-edge nature and commercial potential of design in the Gulf. Secondly, the practice is quite diverse, and it’s maturing. It’s less elaborate than the traditional,” says Al Sudairi.
Think Tank Co’s innovative installation “Takki W Hakki” has circular swings with the seats featuring Sadu print cushions. They are shaped like camel saddles, evoking ancient Bedouin travel, but the aim is “to break the formal barriers that society has built”. You can put on the headphones and, through the Nabati poetry remixed with new Western beats, be transported to an imaginary community. Boarding passes are also provided, reinforcing the theme of travel, while the green interactive neon lights reference the green lights on ice-cream trucks in Saudi cities.
“The purpose of this installation is to invoke a feeling of collectiveness in all those who experience it. A subtle connection is introduced, without the forcing of interaction. Pulling them to this circle will bring them to a time when the only gesture to reach out was simply to gather,” Think Tank Co explains.
“Majlisna” is a collaboration between Emirati architect Reem Hantoush and Saudi product designer Ayah Al Bitar, featuring a deconstructed majlis aimed to bring people together. As the duo explains, the concept of the majlis originated in the desert centred around the fire where people used to gather. Over time it moved into an enclosed room. What the duo has done with “Majlisna” is to open it up conceptually, as well as spatially.
Linear patterns in both the wooden columns and corduroy cushions subtly reference the traditional Sadu Bedouin textiles while maintaining minimalism in form and style. Linear lighting creates a “symbolic fire” in the central floor area to evoke the primordial act of gathering around a fire as a focal point. The space is intended as a capsule to recall and create memories and share in conversation or storytelling.
“Courtyard Culture” is an outdoor interactive installation by Eindhoven-based Studio Mieke Meijer, a collaboration between Product Designer Mieke Meijer and Engineer and Designer Roy Letterlé. The work, which is custom-made to occupy 1971 Design Space’s terrace overlooking the Sharjah sea and cityscape, is inspired by the courtyard found in the regional architecture in Al Shindagha area in Dubai, and is recontextualised or deconstructed as part of Mieke Meijer’s design ethos based on rescaling and reinventing industrial architecture.
The enclosed space of the courtyard is now opened up, a reference to the UAE opening up to the world. The multifunctional structure, where people can move around, climb on, sit and relax or read, also has spaces for greenery — creating an inviting and cool environment to be in. “It’s not a piece of art, it’s a multifunctional work. You can kick it if you want,” they say.
Hamza Omari of LOCI Architecture & Design Studio based in Dubai presents “Nadd”, a reinvented form of the incense burner which is ubiquitous in all the households in the region, a tradition that dates back to the eighth century. The display by LOCI takes you through the stages of ideation, rapid prototyping with various finishes and materials, to the final product.
Omari, who was born in Canada and raised in Jordan, graduated in Industrial Design from Vancouver, Canada. “We were approached for this show because we always have a regional twist in design. Everything we do should have a connection to the Middle East,” says Omari. “We had started developing the concept which was at an early stage, when we were approached. So it was decided to continue on the project. The end product, while having a traditional function, should also be very modern. A product that makes you feel that it belongs to the present, but also connect to the past.”
Born and raised in the UAE, Diana Hawatmeh’s series of posters titled “Places We Used To Go” uses the subjective lens of her memories growing up in the UAE in the 1980s. The locations depicted have been erased over the decades or have changed considerably. They include the pre-renovation Abu Dhabi corniche, Al Mussafah industrial area in Abu Dhabi and Dubai weekend destinations that were popular with expat families who moved to the UAE — the British Club, Liesureland and Al Ghurair mall. Graphic elements are used to construct typography on the backs of posters, challenging the rigid rules of Arabic type through a playful and inconsistent style.
Hawatmeh, who is a Jordanian, says the appreciation for good graphic design is very strong in the UAE at present. “Places We Used To Go” is her foray into art amid her extremely busy commercial work.
COdESIGN’s “Palmscapes” recalls a pilgrim’s transfer of date seeds from the Prophet Mohammad’s (PBUH) home in Madinah to her home country to use them as prayer beads ... inadvertently producing the most delicious “dates of light” in North Africa.
COdESIGN is helmed by the Italian couple Anna Cornaro and Valerio De Devitiis, who are based in Dubai and whose multinational practice spans academics, refurbishing old buildings, urban and furniture design.
The sound and light elements incorporate echoes in a palm farm, the call to prayer and mumbling of supplications and the region’s desert environment. By clever use of material, the installation also evokes several routes of travel through the landscapes from India to North Africa.
Architect Talin Hazbar and designer Latifa Saeed collaborated with Al Fakher, a 40-year-old terracotta factory in Sharjah, to create an installation titled “Chasing Light” that makes a direct reference to craft-making in the region. While the work foregrounds the pure and primitive form of the terracotta stretching back thousands of years, it simultaneously propels itself into a contemporary format.
N.P. Krishna Kumar is a freelance writer based in Dubai.
“Once Upon DESIGN: New Routes for Arabian Heritage” runs at 1971 Design Space, Flag Island, Sharjah, until July 2.