Year: 2008

Media: Oil on canvas, 18 x23cm

Additional information: A colleague at the University, Professor Jassim Al Awashi, a UAE artist drove Meredith Brice, Australian artist / curator and myself into the desert outskirts of Dubai. Since arriving in the UAE This was my first encounter with the "interior" landscape. Jassim was keen to show us his beloved area in the desert where 40 years ago a cafe and petrol stop had thrived- Al Faya Cafe- a well-known stopover for travellers from the east coast to the west coast of the United Arab Emirates. (Persian Gulf Diary, Stephen Copland 2007) A suite of ten paintings entitled Ashara: Jassim and the Al Faya Cafe (Figs. 85-89) developed from the three-hour journey to the desert. I sought to develop new symbols to portray the nexus between identity and art in transit. This also required renewing myself by seeing the desert as a stranger on a new stage—a moment in time absorbed into the timelessness of the desert landscape. Desert in English means to abandon a place, whereas the Arabic word ashara means to enter the desert