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“Well well… American University, you have reinstated my faith in the Dubai artistic community”. That’s my quote of the week; take from it what you will. But if you’re planning to hit any galleries over the next few weeks – be sure to drop into Ayyam Gallery and see what the AUD final year students have on offer. Opening night was a hoot, organized by Yasmeen Abuamer – the observer interaction at the show was amazing. The exhibiting artists utilized vastly individual mediums to tantalize all senses. video art, visual art, music, sculpture, even a doll house you could walk inside of.

Altamash Urooj

I was keen to talk to this guy as he was one of the few ‘rubies’ that emerged from the ‘pile of rocks’ that was the last installation of Petch Ketcha. His work produces such organic, effortless flowing lines you could be mistaken into thinking, “is that the sensual curve of a female, or the side profile of an Italian sports car?”. The work has intriguing sex appeal, maybe it’s the dancers he uses as subjects, or maybe it’s the seductive shade of red…

Areej Al Hammadi

Sometimes you can be mislead into believing art isn’t meant to be fun, and that it’s to be maturely pondered-over by society types whilst swilling a ’95 Shiraz. But thankfully that old rubbish gets thrown aside by Areej. Her write-it-yourself comic strip presents the observer with endless amusing possibilities as you get to write your own story to her comic strip – brilliant!

Rama Musa

Aesthetically-speaking, initially my thoughts were, wow, what a piece, then I started to consider the ‘why’. What’s the back story, what’s the meaning behind the work? Don’t get me wrong not all greats need a back story. Ask Jackson Pollock about the meaning behind Blue Polls and he’ll spin you some codswallop, but everyone knows he was drunkenly splashing paint around until it looked good. So I asked the artist about the back story, and her answer was intriguing. Rama explained that the two months spent painting the endless monotonous puzzle pieces was her attempt to experience the mindset of what it’s like to be autistic. With this in mind, it gives a whole new appreciation of the piece and sparks a whole new set of ‘why’ questions.

Report by Simon Hunt