Month: October 2010

Elizabeth was invited by the Nuqat Foundation to give a lecture under the conference theme of “Visual Pollution in the Arab World” at GUST University in Kuwait on Thursday. Her talk, mostly about Hot Spots and LAGI was really well received.

I flew up that night and we had an evening and a morning together in Kuwait before flying back together yesterday evening. So these photographs document those two walks around the center of Kuwait City. Unfortunately, half-way through our morning walk, the camera ran out of battery power (right as we came upon the modern art museum). So what you don’t see here is the museum, the fish market, and the beach walk. Sorry about that!

Muqtanayati: One Hundred Treasures is the latest exhibit at The JamJar gallery in Al Quoz. It runs 14 – 21 October 2010.

Our treasure: This water bottle with a hand-made harness for attaching to clothing was found at an active construction site in Al Barsha in the spring of 2009. It shows the creativity and resourcefulness of a labourer who needed access to hydration, but whose hands were busy with the work. It stands as a true artifact of contemporary culture and conditions in the UAE.

We took part in a 350.org event over the weekend.

On the way there, an interesting restaurant in Sharjah.

Dropping off our clean trash for use in the furniture-making competition!

Pay 3 dirhams and you can use this walk-in blow dryer after running around in the fountain.

To hold an event around here, even an “indy” one, you apparently have to have corporate sponsorship. To be fair, McDonald’s has been making some real changes lately like generating biomass energy from its waste and cutting packaging for its products. Still, they do purchase the soya that they feed their chickens from Cargill which, to this day, enables mass deforestation of Brazilian rain forests. And it really cannot be disputed that if we all stopped soliciting multinational fast food outlets, we would not only be far healthier but the CO2 emissions reductions would be enormous.

The winners of the furniture contest as decided by the jurors! These Sharjah based artists are actually really great. We’re going to be checking out their studio sometime soon.

Can you find us in the picture?