Street Talk: 'They can make Dubai an open-air museum'

Dubai - For most people abroad, "street art" is not something that instantly comes to mind when they think of the UAE.

But British expat David Hammond says the Emirate is well on its way to being an attractive home for trendy, independent artists.
Khaleej Times recently caught up with Hammond - a former landscape architect - as he sold prints and paintings on behalf of the company he co-founded, DrawDeck, from a stand at "Street Night" on The Walk in JBR. Street Night is a ten-day celebration of street culture that takes place periodically. The last one was in April.
"It's an eCommerce platform based in Dubai, which is a platform for artists and illustrators to sell their creativity," he said.
He noted that he's seen Dubai's art scene begin to blossom since first arriving five years ago.
"For most people, art isn't the first thing that comes off their heads when you mention Dubai, but it's definitely growing," he said. "Something like this event wouldn't have gone on three years ago."
"It takes time. Art culture doesn't just spring up from nowhere," he added. "But Dubai is quite a multicultural city, and that's showing through the different things that are going on now."
Additionally, Hammond added that he believes Dubai's busy event schedule is serving to encourage artists to come here.
"Things like this have definitely helped us get our word out there and show there's different things out there," he said. "It's been a very supportive way to get something going in the Dubai art scene."
When asked which print was his favourite, Hammond pointed to a colourful portrait of a man with a black X over his mouth and the words "Sorry, We're Closed."
"It's by an artist called 'Famous When Dead' from Stoke in the UK," he said. "I also really like a print we've got which just says "yalla" which is obviously quite relevant to the region and is done by a local guy here."
Looking ahead, Hammond said that art has a bright future in the UAE.
"Street art is just massive because of the Internet," he said. "I think Dubai has still got a long way to go, but events like this build on the attraction of promoting the actual art form itself."
"Hopefully the Dubai government can still do a lot. There's still not many places for home grown street artists," he added. "It's still difficult for them to go and practice somewhere. But the Dubai government is starting to recognize that this is a big platform and they can make it (Dubai) an open-air museum."
bernd@khaleejtimes.com
Street Talk is a weekly column to get a glimpse of people's lives in UAE.