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I'd like to introduce you to Nazaneen Naddaf, a design graduate from the American University in Dubai, and good family friend! For her final year in college, Naz came up with a brilliant idea for her final project, a project that recently came to life in our community...

Introducing the Good News

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Paper Windmills

If you were in London last week i do hope you checked out the London Design Festival, an annual event held to promote the city as the design capital of the world and a gateway to international creative community. 

Among many exhibits, one particularly captured the attention of many; The Wind Portal created by designer Najla El Zein.  The installation is made up of 5,000 paper windmills that spin to an integrated win system, it also has an architectural shape that creates an illusion. Depending on where a viewer stands, the gate appear to closed but as soon as you get closer the gate appears to be open up for you.

The artist explains that the windmills move at different speeds and sounds, as programmed by different flows of wind. The light accompanies the flows, giving the impression that the gate is breathing in and out.

The festival will run until Sunday the 22nd of September :)

Paper Angels

We've seen many paper artists on AnnaLikes in the last year, which proved to be very much appreciated. Now i'd like to introduce to you Peter Gentenaar a paper artist with extraordinary talent. He creates beautiful and ethereal paper sculptures. Gentenaar started out as a printmaker and sculptor and with time he realized the potential a sheet of paper has, and discovered many possibilities to work with it. With the agility of a leaf on a tree, as he puts it, a sheet of paper which had not dried yet, can be transformed into the most spectacular shapes, he reinforces the forms using thin ribs of bamboo that resemble the ribs of a leaf.

His latest exhibition is displayed at the abbey church of Saint-Riquier church's grand halls in northern France, the perfect backdrop for the 100 paper sculptures hanging like they were angels.

Yulia's Babushka

The latest piece by Yulia Brodskaya is titled Babushka, a mesmerizing piece to say the least. I've showed you her work before on Annalikes in Papier Filigree. The details in the work is no surprise, Brodskaya has mastered paper quilling and shows us how powerful this medium is. 

Babushka in stages

Bye Bye Harry

The Harry Potter Tribute Art Exhibition opened a few days ago at Gallery Nucleus, the same gallery showcasing the Edward Scissor Hands art posted on AnnaLikes a few months ago. The work is a collection of fan art posted on the gallery's Harry Potter blog over the course of two years, and below are my favorites. It's really interesting to see how people see the Harry Potter stories in different ways. I stopped reading the series from the 3rd book and personally looked forward to watching the movies instead, they're visually brilliant and so rich! I'm really excited to watch the last of them tonight, I don't know the ending... no spoilers please :)

Still Life Comes Alive

"Still Life Comes Alive" was created by six design students who used thousands of folded paper and taped them together to build this fantastic 3D typographic landscape. Kyosuko Nishida, Brian Li, Sean Yendrys, Dominic Liu, Stefan Spec and Duc Tran received the Award of Excellence in the Unpublished Category and won first place at the inaugural Communications Arts Typography Annual.

Here in Dubai, we started seeing window displays at the malls becoming more creative, and collaborating with artists for seasonal and themed displays. I think other retailers should be encouraged and give installation artists more opportunities here in creating visually appealing displays like the above, which would truly change a shopper's journey and make it more engaging.

ArtDubai Selection

I dropped by Art Dubai at Madinat Jumeirah on the last day of the exhibit. Great energy, a lot of new galleries were showing they're stuff. I realized however there were quite a few pieces we've seen many times over the years. Don't worry if you missed it! Here are some of my favorite picks of the exhibit from paintings, illustrations and awesome installations! 

Paper Lace

A few days ago, Japan Society in New York unveiled Tomoko Shioyasu's floor to ceiling tapestry as part of the "Bye Bye Kitty!!!" exhibition, which runs until June 12, 2011. Tomoko takes huge sheets of synthetic paper and carefully cuts away at it using different types of crafting knives and soldering irons. She meticulously chisels the paper to create beautiful intricate patterns on large scale.

I recommend you check it out if you're in New York sometime soon.

Marie en filigree

How cool are these paper wigs! It's like stepping into Marie Antoinette's closet of hair-do's! 

Atlanta duo Amy Flurry and Nikki Salk have created a wonderful series of intricate wigs using only paper. Their paper installations are "fuelled by a love of fashion and an appreciation of grace and nuance of this humble material".