The design connector
Fatma Al Mahmoud has built a hub for the region’s emerging design talent.
By Kate Hazell
Photographs by Katarina Premfors
Sharjah’s place in contemporary art is undisputed; in February, the global art world will gather here for the return of its mighty biennial. But its design scene is still in its infancy. Working to change that—notably by giving new creatives a platform—is Fatma Al Mahmoud. Through them she is crafting a new design landscape.
As head of 1971 Design Space, Sharjah’s experimental studio founded in 2015, Al Mahmoud selects artists to exhibit and helps them shape their shows. Beyond curating content, her particular talent is identifying and nurturing new names in design. “Working with young, passionate designers and seeing how they grow and evolve motivates me,” the 30-year-old Sharjah native says. “It’s gratifying to see 1971 babies fly the nest.”
Al Mahmoud’s exhibitions offer a unique insight into the UAE by dissecting and reimagining the Emirati experience through region-specific themes. For her 2019/20 exhibition Fashcultivate, she collaborated with designer and curator Khulood Bin Thani and hand-picked six young GCC textile designers to work with palm leaves, a natural material synonymous with the Gulf’s cultural identity.
One of the designers, Hessa Al Suwaidi, had just graduated from Loughborough University in the UK but Al Mahmoud saw her potential and asked her to join. “Fatma was not just a curator, but a mentor to me,” Al Suwaidi says. “She encouraged and provided me with the support to experiment with my process, which is where the idea of a 3D installation came in.” Al Suwaidi created an interactive metal grid covered with woven fabrics reflecting the functional shelter date palms have historically provided.
Thanks in part to this work for Fashcultivate, Al Suwaidi was accepted into the prestigious Parsons School of Design in New York for a master’s of fine arts in textiles, where she has just graduated.
“Fashcultivate is one of my most memorable shows, not only because of the subject matter,” Al Mahmoud says. “I am so proud of Hessa. That kind of progress—discovering young regional designers and pushing them forward into the world—is exactly what excites me.”
Al Mahmoud says one of the biggest issues young designers in the region face is a lack of suppliers who are willing to experiment and produce one-off pieces.
Al Mahmoud studied visual arts at Zayed University in Dubai before working as a graphic designer at the Sharjah Investment and Development Authority (Shurooq). She interned at Maraya Art Centre under artistic director Giuseppe Moscatello and joined full time in 2016, handling programming for both Maraya and 1971, then a new arm of the centre in which techniques, experimentation and creative thinking in design and art could be explored. She was a natural fit to head 1971 when the role opened in 2018.
Al Mahmoud’s work is defined by her astute assessment of designers. Her recent show, The Path, featured Modu, founded by Emirati designer Omar Al Gurg, and Iraq-born, UAE-based designer Layth Mahdi. Al Mahmoud knew Al Gurg and Mahdi separately, and, guessing they could build a show together, sat the two next to each other at a supper. “When she met Omar and myself, she saw that we had the same taste and design philosophy but with different approaches,” Mahdi says. “Omar focuses on geometry and modularity and I focus on material systems and fabrication techniques. Together, we produced fascinating results that, without Fatma, I wouldn’t have imagined happening.”
Al Mahmoud aims to bridge gaps in the UAE design scene. As guest curator at Dubai Design Week’s Meet the UAE Creatives last year, she invited the country’s design leaders for a series of dialogues. “It’s so important to create conversations that can evolve and benefit the design scene,” she says. “With Meet the Creatives, we could not only pinpoint and highlight issues young designers were having but we could have important people from places like Dubai Culture and figures who can help create change join the conversation. It’s about connecting people together.”
Al Mahmoud says one of the biggest issues young designers in the region face is a lack of suppliers who are willing to experiment and produce one-off pieces. She hopes to create training programmes for people in the UAE production industry catered towards designers.
Al Mahmoud keeps her eye on graduation programmes in the UAE where she looks out for fresh design talent. She aims to give new creatives a platform.
Another hurdle is that “young designers aren’t being taught how to pitch or present themselves,” she explains. “Even though they have the technical knowledge and talent, they’re not coming to us with well-presented portfolios, which is really important if designers are going to evolve and grow outside of the classroom. One of my goals is to improve school programmes and talk to educators about how to properly prepare their students, and curate collaborations within the curriculum that can help prepare them better.”
In fact, her next show, opening in September, is a collaboration with American University of Sharjah and Juan Roldan, an architect, designer and associate professor at its College of Architecture, Art and Design. Six design students have been chosen to create a meeting point, pavilion or place of community as part of beachfront development projects in Sharjah. “I wanted the students to think about how they can develop these coastal areas by exploring the history of them in a regional community context,” she explains. Al Mahmoud has connected the students with design and architecture experts to guide them through the process of creating a product that can be placed in a public space.
Integrating design into the public landscape is important to Al Mahmoud. She helps curate the Jedariya street art programme, a Maraya Art Centre initiative that puts large-scale works by regional artists on structures across Sharjah. Inkman, eL Seed and Vincent Abadie Hafez, also known as Zepha, have all beautified buildings as part of the initiative. Earlier this year, Al Mahmoud invited artist Rawdha Al Ketbi to create a permanent installation around an abandoned water tower, known as a khazzan, in the Al Faya desert. Al Mahmoud also chairs the Shurooq Corporate Youth Council and is managing partner at the Dubai-based art and design management studio Hamzat Wasl, where she provides creative direction and curation alongside its founder, Hind Bin Demaithan.
Al Mahmoud keeps her eye on graduation programmes in the UAE where she hunts for emerging designers. Names to note include interior design student Hessa Al Ghandi, known as “Hessa Archives”, who explores busy spaces in the UAE. “She documented all the movements in a mosque at various times of the day and labelled people accordingly,” she explains. “The way she archived it was very interesting to me.” Fellow students Mahra Al Blooshi and Maryam Al Hathboor, graphic designers, are also on her radar. “What makes me notice up-and-coming designers, or makes them stand out, is how they present their concepts,” she says. “I look at how their concepts are relatable and if they have strong research to back their idea. The process is important to me, rather than the final product. Once they have a strong process in place, that’s where I step in.”
