SHARJAH: Sheikh Salem Bin Abdul Rahman Bin Salem Al Qasimi, Office Chairman of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, has inaugurated the opening ceremony of the 19th edition of Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival, at Sharjah Arts Museum, on Dec.14. The festival, which is themed the slogan of “Bunyan”, has included various art works such as: pictures, paintings, and ceramic pieces done by more than 35 international artists. The Gulf Today met three artists participated at the festival: Josh Haywood, from the United Kingdome, Jannick Deslauriers from Canada, and Sara Ahmad from the United States. All of them were presenting their work at Sharjah Arts Museum except Haywood, who has showcased his work at the Al Majaz Amphitheatre because the scale of his work is too large (six metres high and 20 metres wide). “It’s better to showcase my work outdoors where the interaction of lights and shadows will be moving according to the sun movement.” Haywood said, as he expressed his honour in presenting his work for the first time in the Mena. Sara Ahmad, who grew up in Pakistan but resides in the US, introduced her art work themed “Groudless”. It contains over one hundred cloud shapes cut from Medium-density fibreboard (MDF) that are painted, and assembled in layers. Pieces of screen cravings are juxtaposed with the shapes in multiple overlapping layers. These pieces are constructed to fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. The background wall is painted in a blend of colours to reflect the sky at sunset. Ahmed was trying to mix the feelings between her town in the USA and the Islamic patterns in the upper pieces. Deslauriers found The Hisin of Sharjah so interesting as an ancient piece of architecture that belonged to the emirate of Sharjah before the union. So, she created a model for this fort, made from white colour fabrics and held together by very thin plastic yarns. “I was asked to make a proposal for my work that I wanted to present here in this exhibition, and I started reading and searching about the main architectures in Sharjah, and I found the photo of this fort. I’ve read more about it and I found it really interesting as this shape is not usual for us in Canada, it’s only common in the Mena countries.”