super dubai talent james clar (part of the traffic clique – as anyone who’s doing anything of interest in dubai these days seems to be) emailed a few days ago:
Dear Friends,
If you’re on your way to work this morning heading from the Marina to Emirates Towers you might see some small words on your right side.
Noticing how dusty the construction gauze along the highway has become, I used cloth and water were used to wipe away the words “Dust to Dust”.
(photo-documentation by Mohamed Somji)
A simple non-destructive art installation. Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust. Nothing lasts forever. Soon these words will disappear too. The medium is the message.
i glimpsed the piece (aptly on my way back from traffic) and read it as a meditation on dubai’s current existential crisis. a common phrase i hear repeated by locals goes something like ‘we survived with dates and camels up until a generation ago and we’re quite prepared to do so again‘. whether or not the sentiment is a sign of strength or delusional defeatist denial is open to interpretation. whatever it means, i hope this sparks more guerilla street art, FRES has had that canvas to himself for too long.
more images here. it’s all reminded me of kevin kelly’s fossilized dubai image.
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