Design Boom
Dubai Design Week 2017 was filled with regional design exhibits, talks and workshops. To take a closer look, Canvas highlighted some of the most exciting innovations this year, including Ali Shawwa's crumpled "Gossipers Sculptures" at Abwab, Khalid Shafar's "Silent Call" kinetic light installation at Around the City and a concept to re-design oil silos to become "Waterfront Tanks" by Badih Rameh at the Global Grad Show. To find out more, find the latest November/December Canvas issue.
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There is something distinctive about a design week,” says William Knight, new Head of Design for the Art Dubai Group, at a press briefing for the third annual Dubai Design Week (DDW) which runs this November. Dubai may have an edge over other global cities because of d3, a purpose-built destination for design, which acts as the central hub for the event. With new sites on the waterfront and a record number of installations across the district, d3 will be brimming with activity.
In its first two editions, Abwab, the showcase for regional design, presented country-specific curated pavilions. This time it has a more experimental structure, its final selection of 45 designs from 15 countries were sourced using the design domino concept, where one designer nominated another. It proved popular. One participant, Ali Shawwa, says: “The selection process sparked an unpredictable and unique network within creative communities across the region.” Shawwa will be exhibiting an evocative piece in ceramic entitled The Gossipers, a trio of crumpled forms which seem to interact, the clear glaze enhancing the naturally grainy properties of the clay, symbolic of sand dunes.
* Ali Shawwa’s ‘Gossipers Sculptures’, which considered Middle Eastern characteristics from sand dunes, abayas and Arabic coffee cups.
*source Canvas Magazine