Water installation star of show at new art centre
241 views · Published 20 November 2018 · 4:08 · Indexed 12 October 2026
Channel: AP Archive · 2018 · News & Politics
(15 Nov 2018) LEADIN: An immersive arts installation of a wave of blue light and smoke has been captivating visitors in Dubai. Waterlicht is part of the newly opened Jameel Art Centre. STORYLINE: Smoke, fog, and a sense of eeriness. This is the latest art installation to be shown in the United Arab Emirates. Waterlicht, an immersive art installation by Dutch artist Daan Roosegaarde, uses a combination of LED lights, lenses, humidity and smoke to create a moving wave of intense blue light which gives the visitor the feeling of being underwater. People walk under the blue wave and try to capture the illusion. Roosegaarde, who is showing his piece in the Middle East for the first time, says the artwork is about the power and poetry of living with water. "Dubai is very interesting because it has a very long traditional history with water, the river that you see here and the creek, so water has been a carrier of information of trade of knowledge, he says. "Can we generate energy from the changing in tide or how do we provide clean water for everyone? So Waterlicht is really about to trigger that imagination, how we want our future to look like." Through this artwork Roosengaarde hopes visitors will think about the impact of water in our lives and raise awareness about environmental concerns around rising water levels. Although the strong winds mean the fog keeps dissipating, people gather to take videos or selfies under the lights. Waterlicht is a two-hour long installation and will be shown again in Dubai on the 15 and 16 of November. It is part of the newly opened Jameel Arts Centre, the first non-governmental art institution to be founded in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries and first of its kind in UAE. It also has four 'Artists' Rooms' for the works of Maha Malluh, Mounira al Solh, Lala Rukh, and Chiharu Shiota. On the second floor, crowds flock to Chiharu Shiota's red room which has the captivating 'Departure' installation. You can't escape the allure of this space. It's spun in thousands of red yarns which cover the walls, ceilings, and a boat in the centre of the room. A wall of used cooking pots by Saudi artist Maha Malluh also greets visitors as they walk into the first room on the ground floor, which is dedicated to solo exhibitions by women artists. Malluh's piece displays 400 cooking pots, some mounted upside down on the wall and others stacked in the centre of the room to gives visitors a chance to have a closer look. The artist acquired these pots from different places and families. Each one tells a story and the shared meals the families had in them. The bases of these everyday, seemingly mundane cooking pans make an interesting visual tapestry. Currently the gallery houses artworks from 45 artists, many of them from Middle East but Antonia Carver, director of Jameel Art Centre explains it's still a place for other international artists. "We focus on the Middle East and on South Asia predominantly but we also work with international artists, I mean we have Italian artist Lara Favaretto showing a major major work in our lobby, we have Venezuelan artists here today," she says. "It's an international programme with but a focus on the Middle East which we think is the best way to show Middle Eastern artists, alongside their international counterparts." On the first floor, five galleries make up the exhibition titled 'Crude', a show about oil and the historical impact it has on the region. One of the exhibits is a metal tunnel contorted into a spiral, inviting people to look through it. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/ You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/45487d9593088286b8e85dbc461d130a
