For Hanin Abbas Hazeem, winning the Sheikha Manal Young Artist Award felt as though she had taken “the first step” in establishing her career in design.
The 20-year-old Jordanian, who is a student at the American University of Sharjah, won first place in the design category for her modular furniture series Little Wooden Creatures.
“I am so happy and proud as well as thankful to this country, because it really appreciates and focuses on the industry of design,” she says.
Hazeem was among 16 winners who split Dh430,000 in prize money, presented by Sheikh Mansoor bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum on Monday night during an awards ceremony at the Burj Khalifa’s Armani Hotel in Dubai. Sadaf Rezaei, 22, who studies photography at the American University in Dubai, won the first prize in the photography division for a moving picture of her elderly grandmother sleeping on the family couch.
“The first thing I promised myself was that I would tell my grandmother’s story in words,” says the Iranian student. “But I am so glad that I chose photography because it tells so much more than a story: this picture speaks a thousand words.”
Hinjal Kumar, who won first place in the fine-arts category, was awarded for her architectural diary Dimensions VI.
In the multimedia category, Jordan's Emad Aranki was awarded first place for his video, titled Disturbance.
“It is a dream come true,” he says. “I have never applied for any competition before, so to win first place is amazing. Film and animation are my passion and I am so grateful for this exposure.”
The winners were chosen from 50 shortlisted entries and selected by Patricia Millns, the curator and artistic adviser for the award.
“The great thing about the Sheikha Manal Young Artist Award is that every year the quality of the art increases,” she says. “This year was the best quality of entries I have ever seen and narrowing it down to 50 was really difficult. Therefore, all of the shortlisted should consider themselves to have been honoured and recognised.”
Mena Al Samarrai won Dh12,000 cash as part of the People's Choice Award for her photograph titled woMEN! "The aim behind my photograph is to talk about women's rights and how society treats women," she says. "So the fact that society chose this picture as the best one is great. Awards such as this force us to work harder and be more professional, so they are really great."
“From its inception in 2006, nearly 10 years ago, our objective has been to establish the Sheikha Manal Young Artist Award as one of the most important and prestigious awards for visual arts in the nation. And with every success, this dream has slowly transformed into reality,” says Mona Bin Kalli, the director of Sheikha Manal’s Cultural Office. “We are already thinking about next year.”
Alongside the main event, a secondary competition was running on social media called #ClickYAA. Over the course of the exhibition, held at City Walk in Jumeirah for the past week, members of the public were invited to share their images of the art show on social media using this hashtag and the best three photographs won cash prizes of Dh10,000, Dh5,000 and Dh3,000 for winner, runner-up and second runner-up.
aseaman@thenational.ae
