Slideshow review: ‘A Most Precarious Relationship: Artists, Audiences and Interactive Art in the Emirates’

Posted on 4th July, by Art Dubai in All blogs, An Art Blog. No Comments

‘A Most Precarious Relationship: Artists, Audiences and Interactive Art in the Emirates’, curated by Isabella Ellaheh Hughes, opened earlier this June at Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah. This exhibition, which features four UAE-based young emerging artists – Ahmed Bouholaigah, Amna Al Zaabi, Maitha Al Jassim and UBIK - takes an interest in interactive installations that encourage audience engagement and participation.

Ahmed Bouholaigah has built a quadrocopter for this exhibit. In his installation entitled Ahmed Bouholaigah and the Rise and Fall of his Quadrocopter, Bouholaigah uses social media as the point of interaction with his work. By engaging with the work via ‘liking’ it on Facebook, the audience determines the fate of the installation: if the quadrocopter doesn’t get enough ‘likes’, it never leaves the ground, if it gets too many ‘likes’, it rises up too high breaking away from the propellor, falls and shatters. The number of likes is displayed on a digital counter behind the quadrocopter as part of the installation.

Ahmed Bouholaigah and the Rise and Fall of his Quadrocopter

Amna Al Zaabi’s Recycling into an Ideal World is constructed with plastic bottles —which the visitors can contribute to. It is inspired by Al Zaabi’s desire to provide shelter for those in need by re-using low-cost existing materials.

Recycling into an Ideal World

Maitha Al Jassim’s Islands is a two-part project : an installation of reflective black acrylic moveable sculptures —which the viewer can assemble as s/he wishes — referencing the craggy mountains of al Jassim’s hometown in Fujairah; and two juxtaposed videos, the first showing a colored and blurry crowded Dubai road, the second is black and white footage taken on the road to Fujeirah with the artist’s phone.

Islands

UBIK’s Autosuggestion uses language —animated text on three LED ticker screens– as a point of mental interaction. The viewer is invited to take a seat on one of the couches, and absorb personal questions about one’s self-worth, which according to the artist, are inspired by self-help books and pamphlets.

Autosuggestion