The National

The Beyond Emerging Artists exhibition is a staple of Abu Dhabi Art, providing three artists from the UAE a platform to showcase works that were developed over a year.

The projects presented, which will tour the world after the festival's end, are often ambitious in nature and scale, addressing interesting pockets of local history and wider geopolitical and cultural topics. This year is no different. The three efforts explore subjects that range from the British presence in the UAE to the symbolism of the poppy flower among Palestinians and the trails of destruction and rebirth on sea beds across the Gulf.

Fatma Al Ali’s Once Upon a Pirate Coast, meanwhile, explores the British presence in the UAE before the country’s unification. The three bodies of work reveal thought-provoking aspects of local history with a playful wit. Of Ships, Sails and Misguided Labels showcases 19th-century prints that depict the UK's Arabian Gulf campaign in 1809. The illustrations show British forces attacking the Qawasim fleet in Ras Al Khaimah. Three local bases as well as 80 vessels were destroyed in the attack.

Al Ali supplements the illustrations with typewritten texts that give voice to the land. One print, for instance, shows British forces destroying a coastal fort. The adjacent text reflects on the scene with poetic verve. “The red coats marched in like a blaze of honour, blending perfectly with the flames they ignited,” it reads. “Because nothing says ‘civilising’ like turning homes and ships into ash.”

I Read Their Words, But I Heard My Own features tablets, which are made of desert and beach sand, and are imprinted with excerpts of Arab and British newspaper articles. The two sources present two clashing accounts of the same history. Where one presents Sharjah as a bustling port city, the other labels it as a pirate cove. Where one celebrates the unification and birth of a new nation, the other reports that “oil states unite to survive". The body of work is a potent reflection on how perspective precedes history.

The third work, I Picked Up a Coin and Heard a Whisper, is perhaps the most eye-catching. Coins and rolled banknotes are piled in the centre of the exhibition space. The coins, Al Ali says, are actually recreations of the currency that Al Qawasim dynasty used before the arrival of the British. “I've created all seven designs, along with the paper notes,” Al Ali says. From underneath the pile of coins, a voice speaks out. Once again, it is the voice of the land.

“It is reclaiming the narrative and telling the story of how different people, different empires, try to have a claim, including the Portuguese the British and the Ottomans, who tried to have a claim but didn’t amount to anything," Al Ali says. "It shows the resilience of the land and its people.”