It has since been a year since the Dubai Culture & Arts Authority announce in Art Dubai 2023 a new commission that will stand in front of the city's famed public institution, the Etihad Museum.
Yesterday, the shortlist of the would-be competitors vying for the top spot and earning a chance to work on the museum piece was revealed, comprising the five Emirati artists Afra Al Dhaheri, Asma Belhamar, Khalid Al Banna, Mohamed Ahmed Ibrahim, and Shaikha Al Mazrou.
However, as Al Dhaheri recalled, quoted in a report by The Art Newspaper, all of the artists were initially taken aback when they were all first introduced to each other, exclaiming that all of the competitors were her "friends."
"We didn't know what to think-we were all laughing," she added.
After Ibrahim, who was one of the first generation of artists that emerged from the UAE, decided to resign from the opportunity to give way to his contemporaries, the other four protested and just eventually decided that all five of them should find a way to be recognized as one artist to be able to work together in the commission.
Thus, "The Union of Artists" was conceived and a year later it stands magnificently at the front of Dubai's Etihad Museum. The name itself came from the word "etihad," which meant "union" in Arabic.
A New Addition in the Wake of UAE's Outdoor Art Explosion
Al Dhaheri, who also works as a visual arts professor at Zayed University, recounted how each of them saw it as an opportunity to "send a message," that it wasn't a solitary project but instead was "all of [them] together."
He added that the decision was brought about by retrospection in regards to the outdoor artworks strewn about all over the UAE, joking that they all felt like they were "academics" in light of proposing the idea.
However, publicly displayed art pieces indeed have a particular history in the Persian Gulf, as many of the young nations were adorned with varied public artworks at the same time as their roads were being built.
Some of the sculptures were overtly made, whilst others were an upsized replica of common cultural objects like the piece depicting a "dallah" (traditional Persian Gulf coffee pot).
That said, the occasional "serious" piece would pop out, like the ones commissioned by Mohamed Said Farsi, Jeddah's former innovative lord mayor.
Such artworks were made in the 1970s for the port city's waterfront scenery by artists like Henry Moore, Alexander Calder, and Saloua Raouda Choucair.
How UAE Played Into the Art Explosion
The UAE and Saudi Arabia, in particular, have recently offloaded huge investments in their respective culture and art sectors, which revitalized the outdoor art explosion and has even pushed it to a new level.
Because of this move, Dubai Public Art's program was galvanized to commission work all around the city, the Etihad Museum included, with its collectively made sculpture.
The other works it is commissioning are made in partnership with major stakeholders Art Dubai, Tashkeel, Alserkal Avenue, and Art Jameel. However, recent projects primarily revolve around light-based ones, which usually don't "last."
This is why these recent proposals for more permanent projects are digested by local Emirati artists, alongside the first generation, to be akin to a form of endorsement. With this in mind, Al Dhaheri said that the recent collective artwork is their chance to "shift this dynamic."
"Instead of being told and prompted in what to do, we're going to turn it around and tell them what we want to do," she added.
