A stand out piece: Intersections.

On Wednesday the 18th, I went to art Dubai which is an annual art exhibition that I always look forward to. I have gone through the two galleries that had the artwork exhibited in there. I could really see that there were many inspiring artists out there, and there were many standout pieces. In my opinion there was on piece that stood out above all the other pieces, which is Anila Quayyum Agha’s piece “Intersections”.

This piece is a laser cut metal cube, the Islamic pattern cutouts are very intricate and delicate. The cube was hung up with a light bulb in the center of it. This piece was very fascinating to me; I really loved the different variations of contrast in it like the hard metal and the delicate designs, as well as the dark and light with the shadows around the cube. I also loved the way the artist engaged the viewer through the beautiful shadows, these shadows were very inviting and they made people walk into them making them part of the artwork.

In my own opinion this artwork symbolizes unity, by making people walk into the shadows it doesn’t matter how they look like they all look very similar when they are covered in the Islamic designs. As for the artist, she says that “The Intersections project takes the seminal experience of exclusion as a woman from a space of community and creativity such as a Mosque and translates the complex expressions of both wonder and exclusion that have been my experience while growing up in Pakistan.”

To read the artist’s full statement go to: https://www.artprize.org/anila-quayyum-agha/2014/intersections

Sanaa Al Maktoum