Daniah Al Saleh's studio is in a former converted warehouse along a west London canal. The site epitomises the gig economy, with shared desks, talkative 20-somethings and overpriced coffee. But tucked off the main drag, the Saudi Arabian artist's workspace reveals a different story, one in which the path towards being an artist was not a given, and in which Al Saleh had to cobble together time and opportunities to make her artwork.
Following her passion
Born in Riyadh in 1970, Al Saleh studied computer applications at King Saud University. But her real passion was art. “It is the usual story of an artist,” she shrugs. “I loved painting and drawing from a young age.”
When she moved to Jeddah to start a family, she took art classes at the Darat Binzagr, the informal art school that the artist Safeya Binzagr set up in her home. "When I went to Jeddah I craved painting, like the paintings I saw in galleries and exhibits. I didn't know how because I never learnt – I doodled, I tried to imitate, but I didn't know the structures.
“There wasn’t the internet back then, and the only exposure I had was when I travelled with my family during summer breaks. When I heard that Safeya Binzagr had an art programme I jumped on it.”
There, as for many artists of her generation, Al Saleh was taught by Binzagr and the Scottish artist Dorothy Boyer, a watercolourist who had settled in Jeddah for decades with her family. "Dorothy was very kind and generouswith her knowledge," Al Saleh says. "That was also when the internet started, so I would stay for hours and hours on end looking at art online, registering for courses, planning my summer breaks around them – Saint Martins, the Slade, the Art Academy, many at the Prince's Trust. But I could only do short ones because my kids were young at the time."
Two decades on, Al Saleh has won the second Ithra Art Prize, the award given by Art Dubai and the King Abdulaziz Centre for World Culture (Ithra) in Dhahran, near Dammam. It comes with a $100,000 (Dh367,315) prize that goes towards the production of an art work, which is exhibited in the main halls of the Dubai art fair and then enters the permanent collection of the grand Ithra art centre.
Her winning entry
Al Saleh won the prize for her proposal, Sawtam, a digital demonstration of how meaning in Arabic is formed. Al Saleh isolated the basic element of communication: the phoneme, or "sawtam" in Arabic.
I'm very interested in things that go unnoticed: the mundane, the ordinary things of everyday life, and language is one of them – we take it for granted.
"The smallest item is the pronunciation of the word, the phoneme," she explains. "I'm very interested in things that go unnoticed: the mundane, the ordinary things of everyday life, and language is one of them – we take it for granted. I looked at language and thought, what is it? It is the spoken word: wind, the movement of our tongues, and the sounds that we make through our mouths."
Al Saleh wrote a computer code that changes the lines on a monitor when each of the Arabic language’s 28 sounds are voiced. Each sound is displayed as almost a dance of lines on one of 28 monitors which are stacked seven high in four rows. “I made a small sketch in programmable code that generates the abstract image of geometrical lines that move, that are in rotation,” she explains. “When combined with the sound file, the lines vibrate like a sound wave. The analogy is a wind chime that’s moving in the breeze. A strong wind blows and it moves faster and it comes down. That’s the abstract idea I had – and I translated that into a visual installation.”
The transfiguration of sound into visual art has a long and important art history. Ibrahim El-Salahi's painting The Last Sound, from 1964 (and which is on view at the Barjeel galleries at the Sharjah Art Museum), considers the last sound the world might make: a perfect black circle; thing, spindly grey emendations; a water red stain. In the early days of cinema, the visual representation of sound proved a particularly alluring subject, as film could represent sound, vision, and time at once.
Mary Ellen Bute, a little-known American avant-garde filmmaker, made choreographies of lines in the 1940s in order to visually represent music. Rather more famously, Fernand Leger made the film Ballet Mecanique in 1924, in which everyday sounds and the workings of film itself combine to create a cinematic syncopated rhythm.
It's unclear how much Al Saleh alludes to this tradition, but her work shares a spirit of testing out new technologies. Al Saleh, after years of ad-hoc art scholarship, has enrolled in her first formal art course, in computational art at the renowned institution of Goldsmiths, University of London.
"I am so thankful that I am on this course," she says. "I have learnt so much that I wouldn't be exposed to. This is the movement now. Instead of sitting in a studio with my brush and paints contemplating light, waiting for creativity to strike, this has opened whole new doors for me with possibilities. It's endless!"
Overlooked geometries
If Sawtam is a break from the kind of work she was making before, it still contains the same germ of analysis: the desire to focus on what is elsewhere overlooked. "I used my work to show some sort of narrative," she says about the geometries she makes in watercolour, which she has continued alongside her work in new media.
She painted wooden cooking spoons as a kind of interior frame within one work. "The painting is not about wooden spoons, but about something much deeper," she says. "You use a wooden spoon to cook your meals, but do you bring it out at a dinner party? I used it to show how the normal person who works hard from nine to five goes underappreciated, even if they are the main support of the society."
Like many Saudi artists of her generation, she critiques aspects of Saudi Arabian society, while at the same time celebrating its folkloric and religious history.
With Ahwak, for example, the work she exhibited in 2014 at the first 21, 39, the yearly Jeddah arts festival, she told a "Saudi love story". The geometric painting contains two rectangular forms made out of differently coloured patterns.
"Ahwak means, roughly, 'I love you' – or even, above love, 'I'm passionate about you'," she explains. "The love poems on the Kaaba … would mention the names of their lovers, and how they met them, and describe how she looks and how beautiful she was. For me, this is a celebration of poetry."
Al Saleh says the challenge for her now is to combine her painting with the forms of expression she is learning in new media arts. "I'm still testing things out," she says. "I just need time to realise my ideas. That's all."
Daniah Al Saleh's prize-winning work Sawtam will be on display until Saturday at Art Dubai, Madinat Jumeirah. For more details, visit www.artdubai.ae/the-fair
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Schedule:
Friday, January 12: Six fourball matches
Saturday, January 13: Six foursome (alternate shot) matches
Sunday, January 14: 12 singles
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Results
2-15pm: Commercial Bank Of Dubai – Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (Dirt) 1,400m; Winner: Al Habash, Patrick Cosgrave (jockey), Bhupat Seemar (trainer)
2.45pm: Al Shafar Investment – Handicap (TB) Dh80,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: Day Approach, Ray Dawson, Ahmad bin Harmash
3.15pm: Dubai Real estate Centre – Handicap (TB) Dh80,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Celtic Prince, Richard Mullen, Rashed Bouresly
3.45pm: Jebel Ali Sprint by ARM Holding – Listed (TB) Dh500,000 (D) 1,000m; Winner: Khuzaam, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
4.15pm: Shadwell – Conditions (TB) Dh100,000 (D) 1,600m; Winner: Tenbury Wells, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer
4.45pm: Jebel Ali Stakes by ARM Holding – Listed (TB) Dh500,000 (D) 1,950m; Winner: Lost Eden, Andrea Atzeni, Doug Watson
5.15pm: Jebel Ali Racecourse – Handicap (TB) Dh76,000 (D) 1,950m; Winner: Rougher, Pat Dobbs, Doug Watson
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THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
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Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
MATCH INFO
Aston Villa 1 (Konsa 63')
Sheffield United 0
Red card: Jon Egan (Sheffield United)
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Asia Cup 2018 Qualifier
Sunday's results:
- UAE beat Malaysia by eight wickets
- Nepal beat Singapore by four wickets
- Oman v Hong Kong, no result
Tuesday fixtures:
- Malaysia v Singapore
- UAE v Oman
- Nepal v Hong Kong
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Draw:
Group A: Egypt, DR Congo, Uganda, Zimbabwe
Group B: Nigeria, Guinea, Madagascar, Burundi
Group C: Senegal, Algeria, Kenya, Tanzania
Group D: Morocco, Ivory Coast, South Africa, Namibia
Group E: Tunisia, Mali, Mauritania, Angola
Group F: Cameroon, Ghana, Benin, Guinea-Bissau
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EEric%20Barbier%26nbsp%3B%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStarring%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EYoussef%20Hajdi%2C%20Nadia%20Benzakour%2C%20Yasser%20Drief%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
More on Quran memorisation:
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
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COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
Labour dispute
The insured employee may still file an ILOE claim even if a labour dispute is ongoing post termination, but the insurer may suspend or reject payment, until the courts resolve the dispute, especially if the reason for termination is contested. The outcome of the labour court proceedings can directly affect eligibility.
- Abdullah Ishnaneh, Partner, BSA Law
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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China
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UAE
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Japan
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Norway
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Canada
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Singapore
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Australia
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Saudi Arabia
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South Korea
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