Sharjah Art Museum
Part 8 of the photo tour of Sharjah Biennial 11: Re:emerge. Towards a New Cultural Cartography, 13 March - 13 May 2013. Curator: Yuko Hasegawa. More than 100 participants.
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Heritages. 2013
Thirty arish (palm leaf) chairs and vinyl wall text
On his first visit to Sharjah, Afif was struck by the beautiful furniture made out of arish, or palm leaves. This age-old technique is found throughout the Arabian Peninsula, where palm trees flourish; it is sometimes referred to as the bamboo of Arabia. Afif asked an arish furniture company in Sharjah to follow the instructions in Italian designer Enzo Mari’s 1974 booklet Proposta per un’ autoprogettazione (Proposal for Self-Design), which contains guidelines for building chairs, tables and shelves. Part of Afif’s interest is in seeing what modifications are necessary. Accompanying the resulting furniture is the transcribed text of an interview he conducted with an arish carpenter. The plural form of the project title underlines the different layers present, since the project materialises a bridge between tradition and modernity in the context of the United Arab Emirates today.
Commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation
© Photo: Haupt & Binder
© Text: SB11 Guidebook
Part 8 of the photo tour of Sharjah Biennial 11: Re:emerge. Towards a New Cultural Cartography, 13 March - 13 May 2013. Curator: Yuko Hasegawa. More than 100 participants.