Doha: Qatar Museums has announced the winners of its first Public Art Student Competition, which saw seven university students and alumni design art installations currently on display at Crescent Park in Lusail. Of the seven public artworks, three winning installations were selected by a judging panel comprising representatives from Qatar Museums.
Majdulin Nasrallah, a Master of Fine Arts and Design Studies student at Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts in Qatar, was awarded first place for her ‘Balance Bench’ installation. The interactive public artwork tackles psychological and physical boundaries on both an individual and political scale. The seat’s unstable and divided form is emblematic of people’s social, cultural, and political barriers. Visitors activate the seat as they balance it through collective effort.
One person cannot sit alone — the seat only balances when four people are interacting and cooperating. Since each person’s movements affect the stability of the other, they all inevitably become aware of the significance of one another’s presence.
Second place was awarded to Reema Abu Hassan, majoring in Fine Arts and Design Studies at Virginia Commonwealth University, for ‘Qatar’s Collaborative Matrix’ representing Qatar’s resilience and collaborative spirit.
It speaks to the power of individuals coming together and the value of the collective. The structure is made of modular units that, when assembled, create a matrix that allows people to sit, gather, talk, work and collaborate.
Ahmed Mahrous, a Finance and Information Systems student at Qatar University, was awarded third place for his ‘Sea Camels’/‘Dugonolith’ installation. Sea camels, also commonly known as dugongs, are sea mammals native to Qatar’s waters and have been in existence for the past 50 million years. Mahrous’ work comprises six freestanding ‘Dugonoliths’ arranged to catch natural light from the sun. Each ‘Dugonolith’ has the line image of a sea camel cut into its vertical steel plate. This physical template, similar to a gobo or stencil, is glazed with coloured filter sheets.
Abdulrahman Al Ishaq, Director of Public Art at Qatar Museums, said: “We extend a massive congratulations to the winners of our Qatar Museums’ inaugural Public Art Student Competition. Through this initiative, we continue to take art beyond four walls and give locally-based students an opportunity to express their artistic talent through the creation of art installations that provide commentary on current global challenges or speak to our collective psyche.”
The competition, held in partnership with Qatari Diar, is aimed at students who are either currently enrolled in university or alumni who have graduated within the last two years.
As part of the competition, participating students were able to experience making a public artwork from fine-tuning their concepts, working closely with local fabricators to installation.
Other students who participated in the competition and whose artworks are also on display at Crescent Park include Hanof Ahmed, Hend Jamal, Shaden Al Riyabi, and Shatha Al Riyabi.
