‘The Promised land’ had me narrating themes in the context of the UAE, exploring the visual landscape built every day by an expatriate labor class who will never occupy what they create, a vital yet voiceless sector of society.

To create this body of work, I decided to use wallpapers that are excessively used to fabricate offices and residences in this region. The readymade wallpapers were brought from ‘Dragon Mart’ supplies ‘Made in China goods. Dragon Mart caters to all sorts of industries selling all goods and is a type of brand to locals. Using a UV printing method, the construction sites' images were layered directly on these industrial wallpapers repeating, duplicating, and reiterating the city's image. The final layer was a painted depiction of manual workers, their journeys, totems of their everyday lives, and the dreams and wishes they had as immigrants.

Curated by Usman Saeed

2014