A dynamic duo: The rise of Emirati designers Aljoud Lootah and Zeinab Al Hashemi

Ahead of Emirati Women’s Day, we catch up with two of the UAE’s top female designers.

Yaroof by Aljoud Lootah. Courtesy Aljoud Lootah

If there was a turning point, it was in September 2012. Aljoud Lootah and Zeinab Al Hashemi were among four Emirati artists and designers selected to participate in the inaugural Design Roads Professional – a collaboration between Tashkeel, Creative Dialogue Association in Barcelona and Dubai Culture & Arts Authority. The initiative included stops in London and Barcelona, where the team attended the London Design Festival and Barcelona Design Week, participated in workshops and discussions, and saw first-hand how ideas are transformed into objects. It was probably also when the first seeds of anything resembling a truly Emirati design movement were sowed.

Back home in Dubai, the four emerging designers, who also included Khalid Shafar and Salem Al Mansoori, were invited to create a product inspired by their journey that would be showcased at Design Days Dubai 2013. Lootah came up with Unfolding Unity, a limited-edition stool that played with traditional geometric motifs, but was given a contemporary feel with the use of ash wood and a brightly coloured lacquer finish. Only five were made – all were sold. Al Hashemi presented Palindromic Hexagon, a sculptural light that combined LED and aluminium, but took its inspiration from gargoor, the traditional dome-shaped fish traps used by local fishermen.

For Lootah, who has a background in graphic design, the whole experience taught her that product design was her true calling. She has since established her eponymous Aljoud Lootah Design Studio and launched the origami-inspired Oru collection of furniture; Yaroof, an installation that took pride of place on JBR Beach during last year’s Dubai Design Week; Misnad and Uwairyan, handwoven carpets that reinterpret the geometric patterns of Al Sadu weaving; and Double Square, which offers a reinterpretation of that first Unfolding Unity stool, this time in marble, along with a lamp and table employing the same geometric patterning.

Last year, Lootah became the first Emirati designer to have her work acquired by an international gallery, when two pieces from her Oru Series were included in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Australia; she’s currently in the process of opening her own dedicated studio in Dubai Design District; and is in talks with two international brands about potential collaborations.

For Al Hashemi, who started in graphic design and is also an artist in the more traditional sense, specialising in large-scale public installations – the Design Roads experience taught her that her skill set couldn’t be easily categorised. “I am an artist and a designer,” she says. “I fall somewhere in between. And I think a lot of my fellow creatives have started breaking down the barriers and exploring this idea of a multidisciplinary approach.”

She has created a series of works that straddle both worlds. In 2013, she was one of three Emirati artists to participate in the Sharjah Biennial, with a piece called Circumvolution State of Mind, a series of giant fishnets placed by the city’s busy port. Here, Al Hashemi debuted what would become a trademark of her work – the idea of transforming everyday objects into pieces of art. In 2014, she returned to Design Days with Sanam (Arabic for a camel’s hump), a modular rug made from sand and camel leather – created as part of the 2013/14 Tanween programme, commissioned and supported by Tashkeel; for the fourth edition of Emirati Expressions in 2015, she presented Camouflage, an interactive artwork also crafted from camel leather; and for Dubai Design Week 2015, she created Truss. T, a series of abstract shapes crafted out of aluminium truss and scaffolding poles, inspired by the shape of sails and sailing boats.

She has collaborated with French luxury brand Hermès, creating window displays for its store in Abu Dhabi’s Avenue at Etihad Towers, and will be unveiling an installation created in partnership with Swarovski during Dubai Design Week in October. “I feel very honoured to be working with them,” she says. “My installation will be located in D3 and can be seen as an art work, a piece of design, an oversized piece of jewellery or an interactive object.”

Reinterpreting the UAE’s cultural heritage is a key feature of both Al Hashemi and Lootah’s work. “I’m very much influenced by my cultural background. We live in a country that although very young has very deep roots and an amazing culture. I often use elements from Emirati culture, mainly crafts, in an effort to strengthen the appreciation of them. I derive my inspiration from those elements and compose my creations by mixing those traditional silhouettes and concepts with modern aesthetics, to appeal to the current times we are living in,” Lootah says.

For Al Hashemi, her work also offers a means of challenging cultural perceptions and norms, although this sometimes isn’t easy. “It is always challenging to be fully confident to express those ideas – to raise questions and contradict accepted ideas,” she admits.

The duo are part of the first generation of Emirati designers, and representative of a wider movement that has brought us five editions of Design Days Dubai, plus Dubai Design District, Dubai Design Week and Abu Dhabi’s Warehouse421. But Emirati designers, female or otherwise, are still a rarity. Lootah suspects that this may have something to do with the country’s education set-up.

“We have a rich fertile ground for designers to grow and evolve, especially females,” she says. “But I think that one of the main reasons why we [Emirati product designers] are very few is because of the lack of a fully comprehensive product-design major at universities. Luckily, awareness is increasing among the younger generations regarding this field, and the wide variety of presentation platforms, including design events, is encouraging them to harness their full potential.”

Culturally, this is still a new profession in the UAE – Lootah often finds herself having to explain exactly what a “product designer” does. But both Lootah and Al Hashemi are lucky enough to come from supportive families. “I was born in a family that supports women fully,” Al Hashemi says. Her father also comes from a creative background and she says that she was surrounded by female role models from a young age.

Lootah also didn’t have to look far to find role models: “My mother inspires me. Because she got married young, she managed to complete her education while raising seven children. She’s a self-taught English-speaker. There is also Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, the mother of the nation, who alongside Sheikh Zayed [the founding President of the UAE], provided opportunities for women to strive in various fields. And I’m truly inspired by how Sheikha Mariam bint Mohammed bin Zayed is influencing the art, design and cultural scenes.”

Lootah and Al Hashemi may now become role models in their own right, establishing a tradition of Emirati design and proving to young Emirati women that art and design are viable career options. Al Hashemi has this advice to offer up-and-coming creative minds: “Focus and be in the moment. It can get overwhelming. Observing is really important, and put yourself out there. Have the confidence to be original.”

“Great things do not come from comfort zones,” Lootah adds.

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