Adrian Pepe’s Lebanese culture, craft and identity through local sheep
A textile artist from Beirut explores the local sheep as culture and identity that he weaves into his creations
art
WAW machine dispenses kindness in Dubai
The WAW vending machine dished out acts of kindness like fortune cookies. It is part of a bigger idea to bridge the cultures of the West to the Middle East.
Ancient grotto projects Ivo Bisignano’s human forms
The ancient caves at Beit Guvrin in southern Israel opened for the first time in 25 years with an art exhibit by sculpture Ivo Bisignano.
5 Ways to Use Canvas Prints in Your Next Home Decoration Project
When you are a working individual who hardly finds time to make your place look more decorative, the only way to go through the house is to decorate your home space room by room.
NYC dance company commemorates Dance or Die hero
We told the story to readers of Ahmad Joudeh over two years ago. We shared how, in the middle of the Syrian crisis, despite danger and dire straits, he continued to dance and teach dance to his young students. With a special interest in the Middle East, after studying Arabic and also teaching dance to […]
Dancing to Connect programs demonstrate the power of dance, especially for youth
English is my primary language, but even if I didn’t speak some Arabic, Greek and French too, I’d still be multilingual. As a dancer, dance educator and choreographer, I have always believed that I speak the universal language. Movement is life. As living beings, we move even before making our presence known to the world. […]
Essex, Brexit, Art and Fear
I normally write about environmental science and technology but I can’t help but notice when governments and economies behave like damaged environmental systems or unstable high voltage oscillators. Global economies have taxed future generations via inflationary policies and amplified the gap between wealth and poverty. The hot smell of ozone should warn us that a […]
Lend your nationality and swap passports to those in need
Dutch Design Week 2015 is a misnomer, the event actually runs over nine days across 100 locations displaying the experiments and ideas of 2400 designers, including works by students from the Design Academy Eindhoven. Participating designers often focus on environmental problems, but this year many tackled humanitarian problems such as the flow of refugees from the Middle […]
World’s largest trash mural makes life in Syria a little less awful
Anyone who hasn’t been to Syria in the last few years can’t possibly grasp the full extent of the horrors Syrians have endured, but we do know it has been unspeakably hard. To take the edge off, a handful of artists in Damascus built what the Guinness Book of Records recently confirmed is the world’s […]
Provocative Israeli art explores the fake and fraudulent – but why?
Israeli photographic duo Wyse + Gabriely concluded their first European exhibition at London’s Neu Gallery this month; an attention-grabbing presentation that purportedly explores “the fake and the fraudulent”.
Forams up close reveal jewels at the beach
Drop some sand under a high-definition, three-dimensional light microscope and you’ll never look at a beach the same way again. Magnified 250 times, the tiny grains are shockingly gorgeous! Brilliantly colored or crystal-clear, the origins of each speck emerges; spiral shell fragments, petrified corals, gem-like minerals or crumbs of volcanic rock. Photographer and scientist Gary […]
Architect Red Hong Yi Plays with Her Food and Cooks Up Delicious Art (PHOTOS)
It began as a goofy Instagram project. Malaysian artist and architect Red Hong Yi went on a month-long mission, creating a piece of edible art every day. The result is an incredible visual feast.
Ancient Egypt spider art archaic writing?
Egypt offers more to desert tourists than camels: In the ancient land of the Pharaohs, desert-dwelling invertebrates have often been part of Egyptian folklore, including scarab or dung beetles which are known to navigate by the stars. Now spiders join the story.
Beirut Art Center Exposes Emerging Lebanese Artists (and Missing Nipples)
A provocative installation by Lebanese graphic designer Wael Kodeih aims to challenge cyber censorship. Part of the fifth annual Exposure exhibition now at the Beirut Art Center (BAC), is it art or gimmick?
Mishka Henner’s Feed Lot Photos Can Put You Off Meat
British photographer Mishka Henner has produced some disturbing aerial images of cattle feedlots in Texas, composed of hundreds of high-resolution satellite images stitched together into large format prints. This could be the final push to put me off meat.
The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts to be World’s Largest
David Chipperfield Architects have designed a resplendent new building in fascinating, frustrating Morocco, which will house the The Marrakech Museum for Photography and Visual Arts – the largest of its kind in the world.
Shi Shaoping Depicts China’s Desert Scenes with Eggs
There is something so haunting about desert landscapes, and much as we love our own in the Middle East region, we are blown away by China’s desert scenes depicted through Shi Shaoping’s “The Eggs” art installation.
Massive Concrete Amphitheater Lies Disused Outside Dubai
A friend tipped me off about this strange structure out in the desert a short drive from Dubai. I tried to figure out what it was on Google Earth before driving out to discover a mysterious, disused, concrete amphitheatre.
Yariv Goldfarb Uses 3D-Printing to ‘Play with Poop’
We've seen a lot of really useful applications for 3D printing, but Yariv Goldfarb's graduation project for the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem is not one of them: printing plastic molds in order to "play with poop."
Reed Beds: Cleaning Waste Water in the Desert
Earlier this year I decided to visit a strange looking waste management site in Um Al Quwain – one of seven emirates in the United Arab Emirates. From satellite imagery it looked like raw sewage was being dumped in the desert, just a couple of kilometres from Um Al Quwain’s precious mangrove estuary.
Ron Arad Immortalizes Six Fiat 500s by Crushing Them for Israeli Art Exhibit
Israeli artist and designer Ron Arad has expressed his love of Fiat 500s in a curious way as part of an art exhibition at the Holon Design Museum near Tel Aviv: he crushed them, then he embalmed them, and now they are hanging on the wall of an art gallery in his birth country.
Powerful Middle Eastern Graphics from Kuwait’s Mohammad Sharaf
Kuwaiti graphic designer Mohammad Sharaf serves up powerful pictures based on current events, salted with modern Middle Eastern humor and instantly provocative.
Desert Soccer Pitches Reveal Arab Obsession with Football
Ask yourself: if you lived in the deep desert, where the sand burns your soles at midday, would you run outside and play soccer? No sane person should. But Dick Sweeney has sent us thought-provoking images of soccer posts in extreme environments that reveal just how much Arabs love their football.
13 Radiant Photos to Honor Earth Day
It’s Earth Day, which means you will see at least 100 stories in your Facebook and Twitter feeds that will list the many ways that you can become a better earthly citizen. And most of them are valid. Yet I yearned to find a more meaningful way to honor the day, so this year I […]
Studio Sfog in Tel Aviv Makes Recycling an Art Form
We love the creative eco design coming out of Tel Aviv. Israel faces nationwide challenges of mismanaged waste and insufficient recycling infrastructure, but from the deserts of Morocco to the streets of Tel Aviv, artists like Yotam Shifroni and Gidi Gilam are seeking solutions through creativity. Around four months ago, Shifroni and Gilam opened Studio Sfog in Tel Aviv. Sfog means “sponge” […]