ART DUBAI

“It’s Art Jim, but not as we know it !”

I went to the preview of Art Dubai 2012 at the Madinat Jumeirah last night (20^th of March) and was hugely impressed by the variety of art on display from around the world. 75 galleries exhibited from 32 different countries and most things were for sale from the Dhs 1 million or so for the 22 carat Cartier necklace to under one thousand Dhs for a paper plate with a stencil in the shape of a snowflake. It’s all art, but a far cry from the flat, one dimensional fine art oil painting variety although there was some of that. Going to the preview meant I had the chance to speak to some of the artists about their work. Here are my favourites, from the beautiful to the bizaare !

A set of coloured panels provided the backdrop to a cut out black canvas of flowers, while tightly curled up ribbons of paper stuck close together formed a dramatically coloured structural image. 4 people travelled the world with models of religious buildings on their heads pointing out the similarities of religion. Dutch in Indonesia is evident. A  giant fibre glass hair clip when oversized liked this becomes an instrument of torture and could be seen as kind of skeleton. There are many everyday objects that have connotations of torture.  A batch of discarded medical prints are transposed onto uniform mirrors, do you think they needed nose jobs ? Look in the mirror and tell me. Global warming is an issue but a freezing installation using Murano glass creatures, shattered mirror panels and real ice men make the point about climate change. And while they are often in the newspapers, these clever collages have used newspaper to flesh out Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt. There are many pictures I haven’t included, do write if you would like to see more of this wildly successful, entertaining and thrilling exhibition.

Do remember to like the post on Facebook, thanks Monica.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NurA7WQ-QDg?rel=0&w=640&h=480]