Wonder Land

In Wonder Land, Mezaina aims to remove herself from the often-stifling familiarity by adopting an almost third-person objectivity towards the place she calls home.

In Wonder Land, Mezaina aims to remove herself from the often-stifling familiarity by adopting an almost third-person objectivity towards the place she calls home. Moulded by the extraordinary consequences of the pandemic and their impact on the city of Dubai – social, economic and industrial – her intentional gaze brings to the foreground nuances and hitherto unnoticed elements of the urban fabric, indicative of an environment in flux; from the abandoned remnants of constant progress to the reclamatory force of nature over human endeavour. Amid the unnerving emptiness, cosmetic distractions and constructed artifices stand hollow like an abandoned fairground, devoid of meaning as the once unrelenting momentum of ambition slows to a halt.

From the blank highway billboards and the hidden pedestrian paths to the obsolete public phone booths, Mezaina considers the translation of imagery through its materiality and size.

Wonder Land is both a reflection and observation of a city that feels both alien and familiar. This series was the result of Hind Mezaina’s participation as the 12th cohort of Tashkeel’s Critical Practice Programme and her first solo exhibition. Text from https://tashkeel.org/exhibitions/wonder-land