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Edge of Arabia �
local school and university groups; and an internship program for local students.
Flashes
Inspiring audiences were the artistic compositions by Abdulnasser Gharem:“ Exit Only,”“ Concrete Block,” and the soon-to-be“ The Stamp.” The compositions gently nudge his viewers to ponder the quintessence of Arab identity while revealing the power that Arabs possess to free themselves from an artificially conceived western construction of an Arab identity.
Solutions reside in the kind of inclusive discussions encouraged by Ahmed Angawi’ s“ Street Pulse” installation. In the wake of the Arab Spring, this interactive installation will encourage“ Evolution, not Revolution,” Angawi quotes H. E. Prince Turki Al-Faisal, by offering the community a medium to speak and express oneself at different recording hotspots across the Arab World. The project acts as an electrocardiogram machine, which instead of measuring the vitals of the body, measures the pulse of the street.
The spirit of Edge of Arabia brings the periphery to the forefront and allows that periphery to define and determine what so many foreign generations have already defined for the Arabs.
Arabs have it all!
Lawrence of Arabia is alleged to have claimed there is no art in Arabia. Edge of Arabia says: " There is art in Arabia ". It’ s provocative, esoteric and we are all a part of it. �
106 DORCHESTER December 2012