Hadeyeh Badri, Lantian Xie, and Raja’a Khalid have been named as the three designers selected to take part in the second edition of Tashkeel’s Critical Practice Programme.
Tashkeel says there were “a large number of applications” in response to its open call, though the three successful candidates are all established artists well known in the Dubai art world.
The Programme provides studio support, critiquing and production help for contemporary artists and curators living and working in Dubai. That includes full membership of Tashkeel including access to the Tashkeel team, a production budget and use of all facilities including studio space.
It culminates in solo exhibitions or performances, a publication, and ongoing contributions to the Tashkeel public programme. Each of the artists is committed wither to exhibit their work at the Tashkeel gallery between April and September 2017 or to develop a series of events and/or performances for presentation during this period.
The Critical Practice Programme is centred on dialogue and process, tailored to the individual candidates’ practices and area of research. Tashkeel works with the artist or curator to identify a key collaborator to build, challenge, and work with the participants for the duration of the programme, in theory enabling the transfer of knowledge and promoting cross cultural and cross practice exchanges.
“These artists are at different stages of their careers, but were selected on the basis that we believe their work and research will add value to the art landscape both locally and internationally” said Anabelle de Gersigny, programming manager at Tashkeel.
Lantian Xie is something of a polymath – artist, curator, writer and speaker (he’s very good on panels). Last year’s ‘performative talk’ Turn the Sun and Fun into Cold Weather was an impressive survey of Dubai, essentially as a place that not quite arrived yet. That’s his mainline; “Lantian Xie makes images about cosmopolitanism and belonging,” says his CV. “He is particularly interested in hotel lobbies, gulfs, general trading, and cafeteria menus.”
Hadeyeh Badri has been associated with Tashkeel for a while; Möbius Design, the design studio she set up in 2010 with two friends and fellow graduates from AUS, is based at Tashkeel. Möbius was responsible for curating the UAE Pavilion at Dubai Design Week 2015. Möbius also created Design-House, a curated space of non-commercial Emirati design which originally appeared at the 2013 Sikka Art Fair and is due to be homed at 1971 Design Space in November this year.
Commercial work includes a series of culturally inclined projects, mostly publications, but Hadeyeh Badri is particularly interested in experimental typography and especially illustrated letterforms.
Raja’a Khalid deals with narratives of class, luxury, and consumer and material cultures, especially those that connect the Gulf to the world at large. She is interested in how current day capitalist economies articulate ‘culture’ and seek out motifs of soft power that reflect on heritage, authenticity, and wilderness as well as wealth and adornment, masculinity, sport and athleticism, wellness. Recent awards and residencies include the NYU Abu Dhabi FIND Research Fellowship, 2014; the Künstlerhaus Büchsenhausen International Fellowship for Art and Theory, 2015; and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten Guest Residency, 2015.
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