The artist of sand
Visitors on the Dubai Desert Safari are most likely to be wowed by an artist who scoops sand into a bottle and turns it into a genuine work of art. Arts and Ideas came across such an artist recently.
One thing the Middle East has a lot of, apart from oil, is sand. And for a people that have lived for centuries in the harsh climes of Arabia, amidst the vast expanse of desert sand, it is natural that creative uses for this most abundant resource would evolve over the years.
In the expanse of Al Awir desert, creative geniuses like Eid Abdelatti saw opportunities written in the sand. Visitors on the Dubai Desert Safari are most likely to end up at the Al Awir camp, where Eid Abdellati has a stand, piled high with rows of neatly arranged, bottles of colourful sand art.
It is remarkable how he does it. Within reach are bowls of sand dyed in a range of hues-blue, purple, red, green, orange and more. With these, he captures the various scenes and colours that the seemingly barren desert land scape throws up. And all this captured in a bottle ready for the mantel piece.
Quickly, a horde of tourists gathered around the stand, marvelling at the art works. And when they were told it was sand, they looked at the artist with disbelief.
He rose from his chair, picked a medium-sized bottle and scooped with his hand some sand from the bowl to it. He shook the bottle to spread out the sand.
“It is a family business,” Eid said, his voice low and focused as he shovelled more sand into the bottle with consummate dexterity. He shovelled some black sand into a funnel with a long narrow tip pushed into the bottle and made some squiggly movements was. He turned the bottle so the audience can see and behold there were two black camels standing in the sand.
“Oooooh,” the tourists cooed. “How did he do that?” they said.
He shovelled another layer of sand over the images he had created and once more dipped his long-tipped funnel into it. When he turned the bottle to his audience, there were now black-striped hills behind the camel.
It takes six months to learn this art, Eid said as he worked with speed and precision, shovelling one colour of sand after the other, dipping his funnel into the bottle and displaying the effect to his dazzled audience.
“We can write anything you want in the bottle,” he said. “We can draw any logo, all with sand.”
Finally, he took tiny scoops of purple, blue and yellow sand and throw them into the bottle, shaking it delicately to produce a multihued evening sky. He took a narrow metal skewer and pushed it into the bottle, repeating the movement several times.
“This is to compress the sand,” he explained. From underneath his table, he fetched a plastic bottle of glue and put a few drops in the bottle to seal the work. When he finished, he turned the bottle over and hit the top on the table to show the audience that the work is finished and won’t fall apart. He held the bottle for the audience to appreciate his work. In the bottle, there were several layers of sand, forming the desert, the dunes, two camels, silhouettes of eagles gliding on the horizon, a yellow ball of sun and a multihued evening sky. It was beautiful. A round of applause greeted his display and Eid let himself smile.
He had learnt the art from his father and had passed on the skills to his son. Six months of training is all that is needed. It is not only something they do for visiting tourists but for corporate bodies as well.
“We can design everything, put any kind of personalised message either for individual or corporate bodies and ship them to anywhere in the world,” he said.
It is a fascinating work of art and experiencing it is simply stunning. And for Eid and his family, there could be no better way of using sand. Who would have thought anyone would buy a bottle full of desert sand?