Tomorrow, Hazem Harb’s first solo exhibition in Saudi Arabia opens in Athr Gallery. Harb, a Palestinian artist from Gaza, has explored Islamic geometry through his Al Baseera series - where, as art historian Salwa Mikdadi says, “he utilises colour to evoke a sense of loss and turmoil”.
The title Al Baseera is derived from the Arabic word ‘basar’ which means looking as well as seeing through something, whether that be an object, an event or an idea. “In this exhibition, Harb invites the viewer to look deeply and reflectively, to admire art for arts sake to immerse oneself in the series of paintings that celebrate the aesthetics of geometry,” continues Mikdadi.
Harb completed the final series of this painting during a live art installation in Dubai last month. Working with his emotion and fascinated by the Sufi interpretation of geometrical abstraction, Harb wants to delve deeper into his own past and that of the world around him.
Athr Gallery have represented Harb for some time now and displayed his works We Used To Fly On Water in the centre of their booth at Art Dubai in March. The exhibition runs until June 30.
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Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
Dubai works towards better air quality by 2021
Dubai is on a mission to record good air quality for 90 per cent of the year – up from 86 per cent annually today – by 2021.
The municipality plans to have seven mobile air-monitoring stations by 2020 to capture more accurate data in hourly and daily trends of pollution.
These will be on the Palm Jumeirah, Al Qusais, Muhaisnah, Rashidiyah, Al Wasl, Al Quoz and Dubai Investment Park.
“It will allow real-time responding for emergency cases,” said Khaldoon Al Daraji, first environment safety officer at the municipality.
“We’re in a good position except for the cases that are out of our hands, such as sandstorms.
“Sandstorms are our main concern because the UAE is just a receiver.
“The hotspots are Iran, Saudi Arabia and southern Iraq, but we’re working hard with the region to reduce the cycle of sandstorm generation.”
Mr Al Daraji said monitoring as it stood covered 47 per cent of Dubai.
There are 12 fixed stations in the emirate, but Dubai also receives information from monitors belonging to other entities.
“There are 25 stations in total,” Mr Al Daraji said.
“We added new technology and equipment used for the first time for the detection of heavy metals.
“A hundred parameters can be detected but we want to expand it to make sure that the data captured can allow a baseline study in some areas to ensure they are well positioned.”
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'The Alchemist's Euphoria'
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