{
  "id": 7232536,
  "title": "Unseen Script: Abu Dhabi exhibition finds meaning in the patterns of everyday life",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/14/unseen-script-abu-dhabi-exhibition-finds-meaning-in-the-patterns-of-7232536",
  "topic": "business",
  "section": "Business",
  "published": "2026-09-14T03:04:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "The National Business",
    "slug": "the-national-business",
    "url": "https://www.thenationalnews.com/arts-culture/2026/09/14/unseen-script-abu-dhabi-exhibition-finds-meaning-in-the-patterns-of-everyday-life/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "There are routines in our lives that become so familiar we no longer observe them. The route to work, the items surrounding our homes, the shifting light across city skylines, and our little habits performed without thought can morph into personal rhythms. Shafeena Yusuff Ali, founder and executive director of Rizq Art Initiative, explains that \"Every household keeps a script no one wrote down, the gestures, routines and small fidelities through which a life quietly holds itself together.\"\n\nUnseen Script, the latest exhibition at Rizq Art Initiative on Abu Dhabi's Reem Island, explores these unnoticed patterns. Running until October 28, the show brings together 10 artists examining repetition, memory, nature and the ways people make sense of the world around them.\n\nChief curator Meena Vari says the exhibition's themes have gained new relevance in an era where technology can identify patterns in human behavior. \"We are in this time of artificial intelligence where patterns become the code, and the code then comes back to us and will pre-empt things for us,\" Vari tells The National.\n\nThe exhibition features works from Syrian artist Ismail Al Rifai, whose landscapes draw from roads and routes repeatedly traveled. Vari notes that an everyday journey can become so ingrained in a person's routine that it almost becomes invisible to conscious thought, yet those repeated movements can now generate data for AI to predict future actions.\n\nThe exhibition encompasses a range of scales, from large-scale oil paintings by Indian artist Abdulla P A to intimate assemblages by Colombian-French artist Ana Escobar Saavedra. Abdulla's 10-meter-long oil painting explores the concept of home through natural and human-made structures, inspired by abandoned dwellings in parts of South Asia and the Middle East.\n\nColombian-French artist Ana Escobar Saavedra collects seashells from beaches, transforming them into gold-accented works that elevate what might otherwise decay or disappear. Emirati artists Najat Makki, Nujoom Alghanem, and Nasir Nasrallah, as well as Lebanese artist Fadi Balhawan and Palestinians Joanna Barakat and Neveen Abu Samra, are also represented in the exhibition.\n\nThe show delves into the natural world through Simrin Mehra Agarwal's examination of decaying palm leaves and Neveen Abu Samra's repurposing of everyday materials. Emirati artist Najat Makki shifts to three dimensions, creating steel works that build upon her abstract practice focused on color and landscape.\n\nThe exhibition's broadest perspective is evident in the paintings of Emirati artist Fadi Balhawan, whose practice extends beyond filmmaking into ceramics, cement, resin, and digital art. Vari points to a recurring theme in Balhawan's cityscapes: the absence of a traditional horizon, representing the new reality of the contemporary world.\n\nUnseen Script, an evolution of Rizq Art Initiative's previous exhibition Under the Same Sky, shifts focus towards the less visible forces shaping everyday experiences. The exhibition reflects the organization's desire to adapt as an arts institution in Abu Dhabi, staying contemporary while addressing today's conversations.",
  "summary": "There are patterns to our lives that become so familiar that we stop noticing them. The road taken to work each morning, the objects kept around the house, the changing light across a city skyline or the small gestures repeated without thought can gradually become part of a personal rhythm. “Every household keeps a script no one wrote down, the gestures, routines and small fidelities through…",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 2,
    "also_reported_by": [
      {
        "outlet": "The National UAE",
        "title": "Unseen Script: Abu Dhabi exhibition finds meaning in the patterns of everyday life",
        "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/09/14/unseen-script-abu-dhabi-exhibition-finds-meaning-in-the-patterns-of",
        "published": "2026-09-14T03:04:00.000Z"
      }
    ]
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}