Mind Your Hashtags at The Space Abu Dhabi

This weekend, I paid a quick visit to the twofour54 building in Abu Dhabi City's Al Muntazah, taking the opportunity of the opening night of Henosis' month-long multi-artist exhibition, Mind Your Hashtags, to check out this space called, well, The Space.

Unlike its Dubai counterparts (at least the ones to which I've been), The Space is one long, continuous hall. The configuration at the time of my visit had a long table running almost all of its length, with a cluster of privacy seats at one end, and a work table and cinema at the other. A window cafe sits in the middle, and  few walls have shelves to hold assorted books and magazines.

Mind Your Hashtags, featuring the works of numerous expat artists from around the world, consists mainly of the 2D, although there were a few video and object pieces, such as this interesting one by Deislava Dare (top left). Some particularly striking variations on technique and/or medium could be seen, like those of Nissa Riyas (bottom left) and Sarah Amer (right).

I especially liked the drawing pieces on display, appreciating some sharp and artistically distinctive samples of work by (clockwise from top left) Michael Turda, Haafiza Sayed, and Sumanta Dahda.

Courtyard Playhouse and First Long Form Night

The combined improv acting batches of Drama Dubai gathered this day for our first long form evening. We all had a blast, especially with one of my favorites: towns and chairs. It was great to have a casual long form session in the almost 100% finished Courtyard Playhouse, Dubai's newest community arts space. The carpets are lain, and the paint smell is gone, so we were kind of inaugurating it as a usable space.

Apart from drama, there are going to be a lot of other interesting activities going on there, from stand-up to photography. The bleacher seating arrangements, which can be extended in the floor space as necessary, and the substantial stage space will together also make it an attractive venue for performances. Yes, I think we in the arts community here can look forward to seeing a lot of it henceforth.