Dubai: Young artists battled it out for the Dh50,000 that will be awarded to the first prize winner of the Shaikha Manal Young Artist Award.
The exhibition displaying the 50 shortlisted art works was inaugurated by Shaikh Mansour Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President of the Arab youth sports club in Dubai on Wednesday.
The annual award that was launched by Shaikha Manal Bint Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, President of Dubai Women Establishment in 2006, aims to support and expose young artists to advance in their career.
Gulf News spoke to Iranian artist Parmis Nadali, 23, who said that she was confident that she will win first prize with her interactive robotic snake, the ‘Snega.bot’.
“I was happy to know that the judges thought my design was the first entry of its kind and I feel confident that I will win first prize. My robot has snake characteristics and has sensors that make it react to sound and movement. My dream is to create a larger scale that detects low frequencies of human sound to help find earthquake victims buried under houses.”
Emirati Sara Al Agroobi a 24-year-old freelance artist hoped that her ‘Amal chair’ design, a project inspired by her late grandmother, will impress the judges.
“The ‘Amal Chair’ project is basically a prayer chair that rock, its purpose is to help those who cant pray while standing in their rituals. I created a calligraphic pattern of the Arabic letter ‘Kaaf’ that I carved all over the chair, it is as an inspiration from a verse of the holy Quran ‘Ayat Al Qursi’ (Chair verse). If I win I hope to use the money to bring my design to life.”
This year, a ‘design’ category was added to the award, according to Mona Bin Khalil, Director of the Cultural Office of Shaikha Manal.
She also spoke about how the majority of entries came from the American University of Sharjah (AUS) students. Gulf News counted a total of 26 entries at the exhibition.
“The majority of the entries and previous winners were from AUS, this is because the university has integrated our competition to one of the courses offered. I call on more universities to integrate such competitions in their curriculums to expose their student’s talents.”
Cyril Zammit, one of the award’s judges said that they have already short listed the winners. “The winner is someone whose work combines a great mix of functionality, creativity and technique.”
The second prize winner of the competition will receive Dh30,000 while the third will receive Dh20,000. The winners will be announced during a gala dinner ceremony that will be held in mid-December 2013.
