Art Review

New shows to try in Dubai this month Discuss this article

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Those in need of reassurance that we do, in fact, have a living, breathing art scene in Dubai would do well to check out this vast retrospective of the past 12 months in the life of Traffic. With owner and director Rami Farook picking up first place in the International Young Design Entrepreneur Award last month on the eve (more or less) of Traffic’s second birthday, this show couldn’t be better timed.

Farook’s assertion that the design gallery has evolved from ‘exhibitor to creator’, which acts as a leader into the show, is also spot on. Featuring several of resident designer James Clar’s exceptional light installations, with highlights from his For Your Eyes Only solo show, the exhibition saunters through the past 12 months and gives a worthwhile reminder of just how entrenched Traffic has become in the local scene. Unrealised proposals on show include an installation planned for the Dubai Metro, which places T-shaped frames of lights around three columns that progressively lose their shape, alongside photos from the pavilion at the UAE’s debut at the Venice Biennale, also designed by Traffic.

But Clar’s installations dominate the show. A glass display case containing a matrix of hundreds of lights, arranged into three-dimensional layers, creates constantly shifting and glowing shapes within. Argyle, a recent work that places light fixtures within a layered mirror, blurs a wall into hazy, psychedelic infinity, while at the entrance, Clar has created some effective ‘globe lights’ (think elaborate lampshades).

As a whole, this is a worthwhile insight into how pivotal Traffic has become, not just to local operations but also in terms of lifting Dubai’s international credibility. The gallery’s second design competition kicks off this week, with submission deadlines falling early next year, and there are also rumours that the space will be relocating (deeper into Al Quoz, we hear) in the next few months. Whether or not the content of certain events or spaces has been up to scratch is not quite the point – either way they have always looked the part, and that has been down to Traffic.
Traffic, Al Barsha. Until October 29.