IconiCity: new exhibition depicts Dubai’s most recognisable cityscapes

In his collages, Tom Butler captures the light of the city – golden hues of the afternoon, blue reflections of the night sky in Dubai Marina and harsh bright lights bouncing off white and cream coloured buildings in Old Dubai.

Using a range of materials, from newspapers to snippets from crossword puzzles, British artist Butler builds layers on to his canvas to produce Dubai’s most famous cityscapes. These include Downtown Dubai, with Burj Khalifa, yachts docked along Dubai Marina and the old souqs and abras of Bur Dubai.

His works will be presented as part of the exhibition IconiCity, opening at Mestaria Gallery on December 11.

The works not only celebrate the city’s well-known architectural endeavours. They also reflect the life and language in Dubai through subtle clues, which are sometimes humorous, in the collages. Looking closely at the works, you begin to notice the words and phrases that Butler has intentionally left legible.

In Hide and Souk, for example, which depicts one of Dubai’s markets, a small sign on one building says “100% Genuine Fake Shop”, while a view of the Dubai waterfront in Luminocity bears the message “leading touch up paint”.

'Hide and Souk' by Tom Butler. Photo: Mestaria Gallery

The artist has been using his mixed-media techniques to produce cityscapes for places such as London, Havana, Paris and New York.

Recently, he has ventured into creating more abstract collages. Butler studied illustration at Swansea University, completing his studies in 2000 before venturing into work as an artist, creating designs for children’s picture books.

IconiCity will be on view at Mestaria Gallery, formerly Showcase, located in Alserkal Aenue, Al Quoz, from Saturday, December 11. It will feature Butler’s original works as well as prints.

More information is available at mestaria.art

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League final:

Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports

The most expensive investment mistake you will ever make

When is the best time to start saving in a pension? The answer is simple – at the earliest possible moment. The first pound, euro, dollar or dirham you invest is the most valuable, as it has so much longer to grow in value. If you start in your twenties, it could be invested for 40 years or more, which means you have decades for compound interest to work its magic.

“You get growth upon growth upon growth, followed by more growth. The earlier you start the process, the more it will all roll up,” says Chris Davies, chartered financial planner at The Fry Group in Dubai.

This table shows how much you would have in your pension at age 65, depending on when you start and how much you pay in (it assumes your investments grow 7 per cent a year after charges and you have no other savings).

Age	$250 a month	$500 a month	$1,000 a month
25	$640,829	$1,281,657	$2,563,315
35	$303,219	$606,439	$1,212,877
45	$131,596	$263,191	$526,382
55	$44,351	$88,702	$177,403

RESULT

Kolkata Knight Riders 169-7 (20 ovs)
Rajasthan Royals 144-4 (20 ovs)

Kolkata win by 25 runs

Next match

Sunrisers Hyderabad v Kolkata Knight Riders, Friday, 5.30pm

The five stages of early child’s play

From Dubai-based clinical psychologist Daniella Salazar:

1. Solitary Play: This is where Infants and toddlers start to play on their own without seeming to notice the people around them. This is the beginning of play.

2. Onlooker play: This occurs where the toddler enjoys watching other people play. There doesn’t necessarily need to be any effort to begin play. They are learning how to imitate behaviours from others. This type of play may also appear in children who are more shy and introverted.

3. Parallel Play: This generally starts when children begin playing side-by-side without any interaction. Even though they aren’t physically interacting they are paying attention to each other. This is the beginning of the desire to be with other children.

4. Associative Play: At around age four or five, children become more interested in each other than in toys and begin to interact more. In this stage children start asking questions and talking about the different activities they are engaging in. They realise they have similar goals in play such as building a tower or playing with cars.

5. Social Play: In this stage children are starting to socialise more. They begin to share ideas and follow certain rules in a game. They slowly learn the definition of teamwork. They get to engage in basic social skills and interests begin to lead social interactions.

NO OTHER LAND

Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal

Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Rating: 3.5/5

Company Fact Box

Company name/date started: Abwaab Technologies / September 2019

Founders: Hamdi Tabbaa, co-founder and CEO. Hussein Alsarabi, co-founder and CTO

Based: Amman, Jordan

Sector: Education Technology

Size (employees/revenue): Total team size: 65. Full-time employees: 25. Revenue undisclosed

Stage: early-stage startup

Investors: Adam Tech Ventures, Endure Capital, Equitrust, the World Bank-backed Innovative Startups SMEs Fund, a London investment fund, a number of former and current executives from Uber and Netflix, among others.

The British in India: Three Centuries of Ambition and Experience

by David Gilmour

Allen Lane