Jalal Abuthina

Dubai

Jalal Abuthina was born in Dublin, Ireland and has lived in Canada and Dubai. He recently exhibited in Art Basel, as part of Dubai Next: Face of the 21st Century, an exhibition curated by Rem Koolhas and Jack Persekian, as well as in numerous shows in Dubai. His series, The Edge of Now, was originally focused on capturing, interpreting, and visually presenting variables that are believed to remain constant and emanate continually through time and change. Abuthina depicts Dubai as what it is currently celebrated for being - a techno driven metropolis expanding indefinitely. For the purpose of The Edge of Now, Dubai serves a physical or visual representation of change and time, future bound. The national male and female represent variables of consistency and, due to stereotypes automatically associated with their attire, they resonate as products of the past and/or representations of a history that once was. The intertwining of both elements in the series produces glimpses of a visual plain that is suspended between both states, hinting neither forward or backward in time, achieving a state of temporality that Abuthina considers the "present" or "now".