OLIVER HERBERT

The Empty Quarter is a project that questions what International Art Education and practice is in the UAE.

This project follows a year spent as a British artist teacher, researcher and curator in a secondary international school in Dubai. My time in the UAE has exposed me to a vibrant, rich and dynamic art community. However exploring the education of young artists in the region I found complex issues due to the intricacies of student and teacher identity, a legacy of colonialism and the marketisation of western forms of ‘knowledge’. The Empty Quarter is a space where I want to examine and discuss these concerns with young artists from the region.

To do this I have:

• Created a directory of artists which are categorised by the heritage of the students I have taught.

• Formed a collective of artists aged under 25, who will inform the development of art education in the region.

• Collated research from friends I have made that have been also been exploring this topic in the region.

The population of the UAE is made up of Emirati 11.6%, South Asian 59.4% (includes Indian 38.2%, Bangladeshi 9.5%, Pakistani 9.4%, other 2.3%), Egyptian 10.2%, Filipino 6.1%. (Index Mundi). The diversity of the population provides an opportunity for a truly decolonised Art Education where European voices sit at the margins.

In Dubai most students attend International Schools, the most ‘premium’ are delivering a British, American or European curriculum. This locates knowledge outside of the region, which could cause our students to ‘other’ their own knowledge. What does this mean for Art and what does this mean for the cultural development of the region for generations to come?

In International Schools can we ever move on from a place where the artists in our curriculum present Art as a European invention, with regional tokenism? Is curriculum itself censorship? If it is how do we function as an institution without this construction of learning?

I’m looking for ways to listen and be curious as an attempt to turn or shift the paradigm of International Art Education in this region. I hope this project will then inform resources for other artist teachers facing similar dilemmas.

The Empty Quarter or Rubʿ al-Khali is a vast desert region in the southern Arabian Peninsula, constituting the largest portion of the Arabian Desert. The Rubʿ al-Khali is the largest area of continuous sand in the world.  It covers an area of about 250,000 square miles (650,000 square km) in southeastern Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.

One of the driest regions in the world, the Rubʿ al-Khali is virtually uninhabited and largely unexplored. However, vast reserves of petroleum are present beneath its sands. The area also offers a rich eco-system for flora and fauna.

 The Empty Quarter reimagines this construction of space and environment in our region as a metaphor for contemporary art education. The aim is to establish communities of young artists and those working in Art education.