UVA's Pyramid Light Installation Fragment Is A Different Kind Of Desert Mirage

The closest thing to an art installation that the mall in my suburban town ever had was a stuffed french fry slide, with a hamburger play gym, and a milk-shake-turned-play-house which you could hide in when your parents were trying to drag you away from this oversized Happy Meal wonderland. Needless to say, I was not raised in Dubai, and although my vision of what belongs at the mall may be Hot Topic, Claire’s, and McFlurrys, The Dubai Mall brings a different (i.e. classier) vision to the authentically American concept of the shopping mall.

Commissioned by the Chalhoub Group for the Dubai Mall's newest shoe mecca (96,000 square feet of shoe retailers) called Level Shoe District, United Visual Artists (UVA) have created a new installation titled Fragment. This installation is over 25 feet tall and will hang from the ceiling in one of the mall's atriums. The piece consists of 421 eight-sided frames and forms an inverted pyramid.

You might remember UVA from their Coachella Stage in 2011, or Origin, their installation at The Creator's Project: New York 2011. Their work with responsive light is unprecedentedly innovative, and Fragment is no exception, filled with hundred of light bulbs which will create a play of light within Dubai's Level Shoe District. The piece has not yet been installed, and is scheduled to be officially unveiled in March, coinciding with Design Days, and the Dubai Art Fair, where UVA will also be exhibiting their work.

As for the concept behind the piece, UVA describe Fragment as “a site specific installation that investigates our (in)ability to correctly interpret the surrounding environment. The work continues the studio's ongoing study into scientific models of nature and their experiments in utilizing light as a formable material.” Is the Shoe District a correct interpretation of the American shopping center? I don’t know. But UVA’s Fragment will undoubtedly make for a prettier piece of decoration than my beloved jumbo Happy Meal.

See our profile on United Visual Artists below.

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