VCUQatar Gallery Presents ‘Lines in the Sand’

The exhibition is scheduled from 12 March to 14 April 2014 with an opening reception on Wednesday, 12 March at 6:00 pm at the Gallery at VCUQatar. The event is open to the public.

‘Lines in the Sand’ is an exhibition that brings together realms that seem at first to be mutually exclusive – the historical and the contemporary; the real and the virtual; the tangible and the intangible. This collaborative project involving VCUQatar, the University of Wales and Qatar Museums Authority unearths Qatar’s rich and complex history through interactive media designed to create new and alternate frameworks through which we may view, use and engage with the past. The exhibition is curated by Caitlin Doherty.

Projects were created and directed by Diane Derr who worked with Law Alsobrook, Leslie Forehand, Mirza Baig, Al Hussein Wanas, Zoe Donald, Hassan Wanas and Dr. Andrew Petersen. The exhibition is funded by a VCUQatar Faculty Research Grant and builds upon the National Priorities Research Program (NPRP) funded project ‘Visualizing Qatar’s Past’. 

In 2011 VCUQatar, the University of Wales, and the Qatar Museums Authority began collaboratively working on the NPRP funded project ‘Visualizing Qatar’s Past’. The principle aim of this project has been to expand the visual recording of Qatar’s diverse cultural heritage in the documentation and preservation of a publicly accessible record, through new methods of recording and analysis based on the use of UAV photography and video.

Building upon their collaborative research at Al Ruwayda archaeological site, ‘Lines in the Sand’ moves archeology into the contemporary gallery and thus enables new and dynamic interactions, insights and juxtapositions. This, in turn, provides critical understanding of Qatar’s past, and encourages individual narratives to be constructed.