Zayed University: End of year show

From the series Sacrifice by Hamda Busanel. Image courtesy of Zayed University

I’m a bit late blogging about this but I have to say I was impressed with the quality of some of the art and design projects completed by the students from Zayed University and displayed at the Trade Centre in Dubai last week.

From a fully completed dummy copy of an interesting magazine for young Emirati entrepreneurs to a visual portrait of three of the UAE’s greatest leaders made from text and showing the shift in graphics and communications over the generations, there were some really fresh ideas.

Pictured here is a painting from the Sacrifice series by Hamda Busanel. In these paintings, Busanel tells the story of her mother, who married when she was only 13 years old, had 10 children and is now suffering from cancer. They were stock full of emotion and really touching to see.

I also witnessed Fatima Salam present her project Visible Faces. It is a graphic dictionary of all the cultures we have in the UAE and the sayings and phrases common to each nation.

Ameena Al Jarman was one of the brave students choosing to present her work in the form of new media. Her video work Unstained by Thought, focuses on the isolation that we all feel at some point in our lives and the places we go to overcome that feeling.

The last project I focus on here in this post is Elixir, a place designed by architecture student Noura Al Ghandi for older people to re-find their purpose in life. Not a care home it is a place for the community to come together and work on creative ideas that allow the older generation to still value their own worth in society.

It is too late to give you the details of the show as it is now over, but there are definitely some names to watch for in the future up there.