Maria by the Emirati artist Lamya Gargash. Courtesy The Third Line and the artist
Maria by the Emirati artist Lamya Gargash. Courtesy The Third Line and the artist
Maria by the Emirati artist Lamya Gargash. Courtesy The Third Line and the artist
Maria by the Emirati artist Lamya Gargash. Courtesy The Third Line and the artist

Emirati artist Lamya Gargash presents new work in Dubai


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A meteoric rise to fame can be dangerous for any artist. How do you build on an early work that has an immediate audience, is argued over by collectors and, in the rare case of Emirati artist Lamya Gargash, makes it into the Venice Biennale to represent your country on the international stage?

Gargash's Presence series - created between trips home while the artist was studying at Central Saint Martins in London - caught the eye of the curatorial team heading up the UAE's inaugural appearance at the biennale in 2009.

Presence depicted a country in the throes of rapid change. It featured haunting interior shots of Emirati homes that had been hastily abandoned - intact with furniture and domestic trinkets, some even with the TV left on - and were slated for demolition. After that, Gargash moved into rather less captivating images of the traditional Majlis. Basically, more interiors.

So it was necessary for her to strike out for new ground. This strange and disturbing new show at The Third Line is the result.

Through The Looking Glass is challenging stuff - a chamber of horrors for the insecurities buried in the psyche of Gargash's models. She conducted interviews with each of these people, asking them what that nagging interior voice says is their greatest physical flaw.

The artist then set about staging said fears, and photographed them against a two-tone Cindy Sherman-like backdrop on analogue film, rather than digital.

We see that Amer thinks he has a Klingon-esque brow, Bryce thinks he's got girlie hands, while Rosie (in perhaps the most unnerving image of all) reckons she has weaselly little eyes.

Gargash didn't resort to lazy digital manipulation. Instead, she worked with make-up artists to create grotesque prosthetics for each model, which are included in a glass case in the exhibition.

We can't help but recoil at seeing these insecurities laid so bare. What is perhaps most disturbing is just how superficial their issues are. Being physical flaws, of course they're not directly grandiose nor existential, but are purely about self-image.

They remind us that a globalised standard of beauty has become all-pervasive, and that fears of ugliness often outweigh the bigger questions of life.

Reinforced by a torrent of media and entertainment, each of these insecurities has developed in response to a perceived norm. The looking glass that the title refers to is perhaps not just about the imagined defects that we see when we look into a mirror, but rather the mirror of media that tells us what the world deems as physical perfection and deviancy.

We see ourselves in these fears, some of which are clearly the fallout from childhood taunts. They raise the question: what do our eyes immediately scrutinise when we stare back at ourselves each morning?

It'll be interesting to see how Gargash's collectors respond to this work. It's tough viewing, and is far removed from Presence.

But Through The Looking Glass demonstrates an artist keen to make a sharp about-turn from everything that made that series. It has meant, in the process, staring into interiors that are altogether more troubling.

Through The Looking Glass is showing at The Third Line, Al Quoz, Dubai and continues until May 30.

Brief scores:

Toss: Rajputs, elected to field first

Sindhis 94-6 (10 ov)

Watson 42; Munaf 3-20

Rajputs 96-0 (4 ov)

Shahzad 74 not out

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Sri Lanka World Cup squad

Dimuth Karunaratne (c), Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews, Thisara Perera, Kusal Perera, Dhananjaya de Silva, Kusal Mendis, Isuru Udana, Milinda Siriwardana, Avishka Fernando, Jeevan Mendis, Lahiru Thirimanne, Jeffrey Vandersay, Nuwan Pradeep, Suranga Lakmal.

Notable salonnières of the Middle East through history

Al Khasan (Okaz, Saudi Arabia)

Tamadir bint Amr Al Harith, known simply as Al Khasan, was a poet from Najd famed for elegies, earning great renown for the eulogy of her brothers Mu’awiyah and Sakhr, both killed in tribal wars. Although not a salonnière, this prestigious 7th century poet fostered a culture of literary criticism and could be found standing in the souq of Okaz and reciting her poetry, publicly pronouncing her views and inviting others to join in the debate on scholarship. She later converted to Islam.

 

Maryana Marrash (Aleppo)

A poet and writer, Marrash helped revive the tradition of the salon and was an active part of the Nadha movement, or Arab Renaissance. Born to an established family in Aleppo in Ottoman Syria in 1848, Marrash was educated at missionary schools in Aleppo and Beirut at a time when many women did not receive an education. After touring Europe, she began to host salons where writers played chess and cards, competed in the art of poetry, and discussed literature and politics. An accomplished singer and canon player, music and dancing were a part of these evenings.

 

Princess Nazil Fadil (Cairo)

Princess Nazil Fadil gathered religious, literary and political elite together at her Cairo palace, although she stopped short of inviting women. The princess, a niece of Khedive Ismail, believed that Egypt’s situation could only be solved through education and she donated her own property to help fund the first modern Egyptian University in Cairo.

 

Mayy Ziyadah (Cairo)

Ziyadah was the first to entertain both men and women at her Cairo salon, founded in 1913. The writer, poet, public speaker and critic, her writing explored language, religious identity, language, nationalism and hierarchy. Born in Nazareth, Palestine, to a Lebanese father and Palestinian mother, her salon was open to different social classes and earned comparisons with souq of where Al Khansa herself once recited.

Changing visa rules

For decades the UAE has granted two and three year visas to foreign workers, tied to their current employer. Now that's changing.

Last year, the UAE cabinet also approved providing 10-year visas to foreigners with investments in the UAE of at least Dh10 million, if non-real estate assets account for at least 60 per cent of the total. Investors can bring their spouses and children into the country.

It also approved five-year residency to owners of UAE real estate worth at least 5 million dirhams.

The government also said that leading academics, medical doctors, scientists, engineers and star students would be eligible for similar long-term visas, without the need for financial investments in the country.

The first batch - 20 finalists for the Mohammed bin Rashid Medal for Scientific Distinction.- were awarded in January and more are expected to follow.

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Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
When is VAR used?

Goals

Penalty decisions

Direct red-card incidents

Mistaken identity

MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg

Bayern Munich 1
Kimmich (27')

Real Madrid 2
Marcelo (43'), Asensio (56')

Tailors and retailers miss out on back-to-school rush

Tailors and retailers across the city said it was an ominous start to what is usually a busy season for sales.
With many parents opting to continue home learning for their children, the usual rush to buy school uniforms was muted this year.
“So far we have taken about 70 to 80 orders for items like shirts and trousers,” said Vikram Attrai, manager at Stallion Bespoke Tailors in Dubai.
“Last year in the same period we had about 200 orders and lots of demand.
“We custom fit uniform pieces and use materials such as cotton, wool and cashmere.
“Depending on size, a white shirt with logo is priced at about Dh100 to Dh150 and shorts, trousers, skirts and dresses cost between Dh150 to Dh250 a piece.”

A spokesman for Threads, a uniform shop based in Times Square Centre Dubai, said customer footfall had slowed down dramatically over the past few months.

“Now parents have the option to keep children doing online learning they don’t need uniforms so it has quietened down.”

Draw for Europa League last-16

Istanbul Basaksehir v Copenhagen; Olympiakos Piraeus v Wolverhampton Wanderers

Rangers v Bayer Leverkusen; VfL Wolfsburg v Shakhtar Donetsk; Inter Milan v Getafe

Sevilla v AS Roma; Eintracht Frankfurt or Salzburg v Basel; LASK v Manchester United