Emerging Emirati Artist Sara Al Haddad Is The Latest Artist In Residence At DUCTAC’s Gallery Of Light
Emerging Emirati artist Sara Al Haddad is the latest artist to take part in the Residency programme at DUCTAC’s Gallery of Light. Al Haddad, who has previously been shortlisted for the Sheikha Manal Young Artist Award and was a finalist in the New Era Introducing Competition in 2011, will be working in the gallery (situated at DUCTAC in Mall of the Emirates) until 12th January, before a week long exhibition of the work created during her residency begins on 15th January.
The Gallery of Light’s Artist Residency programme is a continuation of the gallery’s mission to promote and develop opportunities for under-represented artists and curators, by exhibiting arts practice that is evolving and experimental. The programme, which promotes emerging creative voices by giving studio access to artists or curators for one month in which they can explore their own practice and projects, also aims to sustain the gallery’s other aim - to provide a platform for dialogue between artists, both locally and across cultures.
The idea behind the Residency is to enable artists and curators to consider their practice from new perspectives, out of the context of their regular studios. For the visiting public it is hoped that open-studio access to the artists during the Residency will help to demystify contemporary art making and provide inspiration for their own creative ideas.
Born in 1988, Sara Al Haddad received her BA in Graphic Design from the American University in Dubai. Her artistic journey began early with the exploration and use of handmade crafts during her childhood years.
Using “female” hand-crafts such as knitting, crochet and embroidery, Al Haddad creates self-investigative pieces with a conceptual-and-critical-bent. Process - emphasizing the monotony of domestic labour - is very much at the centre of Al Haddad’s pieces as she explores domestic craft techniques, together with material and imagery that seems incongruous or disparate to these activities. This opens up various associations and meanings, and creates allusions to her Emirati roots.
Underlying the themes in her work is a keen exploration of physical experience, at times emphasising traditional female experience. These dual tensions are frequently played out through contrasts between materials, but they are also evident in binary themes such as function versus form and physical versus psychological experience.
Her works are as much about her personal journey as an artist as they are about a desire to articulate broader social issues.
The gallery is open to the public throughout the residency, with visitors being invited to interact with the Al Haddad and watch her at work. Unique, free master-classes and dialogues also provide DUCTAC’s visiting public with the opportunity to learn from the resident.
Previous Gallery of Light resident artists include English painter and video artist Simon Coates, Ethiopian Printmaker Ephrem Solomon, Emirati painter and sculptor Khawla Darwish and German-Egyptian artist Mona Fares.
Dates: Monday 12th November – Saturday 12th January
Exhibition: Tuesday 15th January – Tuesday 22nd January
Venue: Gallery of Light, DUCTAC, Mall of the Emirates
Web: www.ductac.org
Contact: 04 341 4777 or galleryoflight@ductac.org
Emirate: Dubai
Date: Dec 19, 2012
Back