DUBAI.- ‘No Trespassing’ marks Ishara Art Foundation’s first summer exhibition. Curated by Priyanka Mehra, the show channels the aesthetics of the streets into a white cube space. Through distinct practices, six UAE-based and South Asian artists explore their relationship with the street, engaging with it as both subject and medium.
Rather than attempting to define the street, the exhibition underlines its resistance to definition. More than simply a setting, it is a collection of individual experiences that alternate between chaotic and orderly, gritty and beautiful, uninhibited and curated. Signposts, building materials, pavements, lights, street art, scrapheaps and human traces become inscriptions of a city’s movement. ‘No Trespassing’ looks at the streets as a site of deconstruction and reinvention, continually shaping and being shaped by those who pass through them.
The exhibition explores what it means to speak of art in, on and from the street. The participating artists have created their works through on-site interventions, a form of mark-making that mirrors the interaction of a city with its inhabitants. By “tagging” the walls and floors of a formal exhibition space, the artists claim it as their own – challenging the perception that institutionalised forms of artistic expression hold greater cultural value.
Upon entering the exhibition, the viewer encounters a large-scale mixed-media work by H11235 (Kiran Maharjan). As the artist was unable to be present on-site to create the piece, it explores the possibilities of mark-making from a distance. Departing from his signature photorealistic and intricate style, it signals the void left by his absence. An abstraction of a digital rendering, which is presented opposite, the work distils the intertwined bodily and architectural elements shown in the original while incorporating locally sourced building materials such as corrugated metal and engineered wood. Questioning the binary between humans and the built environment, it explores the impact of our material surroundings on our psyche.
At the far end of the gallery, Rami Farook makes an intervention by carving out four square metres of the wall, revealing its hidden infrastructure. This act exposes the vulnerability of the white cube and prompts reflection on the ownership of art and space. More than a gesture, the removed sections are offered as a gift to Ishara’s founder and team – symbolising trust, transparency and connection. “The work honours the Foundation’s history while inviting shared custodianship and care for its future,” says Farook.
In the second gallery, Fatspatrol (Fathima Mohiuddin) presents ‘The World Out There’, consisting of what she calls “scavenged” objects – discarded street signs, scraps of wood and posters – marked with gestural drawings that extend beyond the mounted pieces and onto the surrounding wall. Adopting the persona of the flâneur – a solitary figure who wanders through a city, observing and contemplating the urban landscape – the artist collects objects to rewrite their narratives using her own voice and language. For Fatspatrol, this is an act of reclaiming the street, which is systemically regulated, surveilled and commodified. It is a space where we are instructed to “follow the signs”, yet where new stories are continually being inscribed.
Turning into an alcove, one discovers Sara Alahbabi’s ‘For a Better Modern Something’, an installation that explores Abu Dhabi’s evolving urban fabric. Cement blocks printed with maps are joined together with LED tube lights, creating a grid-like structure against the surface of the wall and floor. The work is the result of Alahbabi’s use of walking as a methodology in her practice, to experience the streets as a pedestrian in a city dominated by a culture of driving. Traveling on foot reveals new aspects of Abu Dhabi’s identity, in which connections flow between communities and a potential for mutual understanding across cultural and economic boundaries emerges.
Khaled Esguerra’s installation, displayed in the third gallery, challenges ongoing efforts to conceal the disorderliness of urban centres. Titled ‘Heritage Legacy Authentic’, the work responds to the redevelopment of historic neighbourhoods, carried out with the promise of preserving heritage and authenticity. Tiled across the floor are sheets of copier paper, a medium often used for informal advertisements, printed with words drawn from the promotional messaging of these projects and masked with blank carbon paper. The work invites viewers to stomp on, kick, thrash, tear and skid over it, gradually revealing the printed words over the course of the exhibition. Serving as a canvas for Salma Dib, the surrounding walls are covered with layers of traces, lettering, fragments and textured elements. Inspired by the walls of Palestine, Jordan and Syria, the artwork transforms the gallery into a palimpsest of thoughts and ideas inscribed by multiple authors over time.
‘No Trespassing’ invites audiences to step into a dialogue between the street and the institution, and reimagine how we move through, and leave our mark on, the spaces we inhabit. The exhibition is curated by Priyanka Mehra, Exhibitions Manager and Programmes Curator at the Ishara Art Foundation, and will be accompanied by physical and virtual tours, as well as educational and public programmes.
