Design Days Dubai

For the fifth year the Crafts Council will be taking twelve makers to the sixth edition of Design Days Dubai. This initiative will help makers explore new markets and is supported by the Department for International Trade (DIT) and the British Council.

Selected by Sarah Mann, Director of Architecture Design Fashion, British Council; Dr Alexandra MacGilp, UAE based curator at the Maraya Art Centre; and Annie Warburton, Creative Director, Crafts Council, this year’s group of exhibitors represents some of Britain’s brightest talent.

The selected makers at Stand G07 are: Anita Carnell, Nadia-Anne Ricketts representing BeatWoven, Cristina Vezzini and Stan Chen representing Vezzini & Chen, Harry Morgan, Juli Bolaños-Durman, Lubna Chowdhary, Pia Wüstenberg, Regina Heinz, Shauna Richardson, Stuart Akroyd, and Umut Yamac.

The makers represent a range of disciplines and use a variety of experimental materials and techniques.

• Shauna Richardson is an award winning British artist who invented the term Crochetdermy to describe her distinctive work. She creates realistic life-size animal sculpture created using crochet, challenging the theory that anything can be art. Shauna’s work has received much critical acclaim and has been exhibited at the Natural History Museum, Saatchi Gallery and the Victoria & Albert Museum.
• BeatWoven was founded by avant-garde textile artist Nadia-Anne Ricketts. Nadia’s work explores pattern, by using skilfully coded audio technology as an instrument to translate tracks into a woven fabric. Projects so far have included commissions for Warner Music, Harrods, and The Royal Festival Hall. It will be Nadia’s second time at Design Days Dubai, and after many requests last year, she will be capturing the sonic geometry behind Arabic ‘Call to Prayer’, and weaving this into an art piece.
• Umut Yamac is a London based architect and designer with Turkish heritage. Umut graduated from the Bartlett School of Architecture, and went on to work for a number of internationally renowned architects and designers before establishing his own practice in 2011. He works on a diverse range of projects from the scale of the object to the architectural.

As part of the UK/UAE 2017 Year of Creative Collaboration, the British Council is supporting the delivery of a programme of workshops and talks by the selected makers in the UAE.
For more information visit http://www.craftscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/design-days-dubai-2016/

“British craft is revered around the world for its quality, energy and innovation. We are proud to be returning to Design Days Dubai for its sixth edition and this year partnering with the British Council. Our selection of twelve makers for 2017 continues to reflect the diversity and excellence of contemporary British practice.” -- Rosy Greenlees, Executive Director, Crafts Council.