Installation view of 'The Contingent Object' at Manar Abu Dhabi 2025
Shaikha Al Mazrou presents her large scale installation The Contingent Object at Manar Abu Dhabi 2025, A Public Light Art Exhibition.
Shaikha Al Mazrou is an Emirati sculptor whose practice investigates the tension between form and material. Working with found industrial objects, including obsolete electronics, she reconfigures mass-produced components into sculptural compositions that explore colour, geometry, repetition, and abstraction. Her work draws from modernist traditions while challenging the ideologies of industrial production through handmade processes.
Al Mazrou’s current research explores synchronism, mapping the correspondence between colour and sound. Her large-scale installations often reference agricultural geometries in desert landscapes, reflecting on systems of control, transformation, and the visual imprint of human intervention.
ABOUT MANAR
Organised by the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi (DCT Abu Dhabi), this second edition of Manar Abu Dhabi brings together fifteen Emirati and international artists and collectives from ten countries, presenting twenty-three works including site-specific light sculptures, projections, and immersive installations. The exhibition unfolds across four key locations—Jubail Island, Souq Al Mina, and, for the first time, Al Ain—with dedicated trails at Al Qattara and Al Jimi Oases, highlighting Abu Dhabi’s diverse landscapes and ecosystems.
Curated by Khai Hori (Artistic Director) and co-curated by Alia Zaal Lootah, Munira Al Sayegh, and Mariam Alshehhi, The Light Compass invites audiences to engage actively with light as both guide and medium. Some artworks shine as luminous markers, while others remain still, attuned to breath, presence, and change. Inspired by traditions such as nahma—melodic chants that once encoded winds, routes, and tides—the exhibition presents light not as spectacle, but as instrument: encouraging reflection, alignment, and a shared act of orientation.
November 16, 2025
