Michèle Lamy explores light and darkness in Dubai

Nacho Carbonell’s gargantuan chandelier Inside a Forest Cloud (113/2019) (2019) hovering above Vincenzo De Cotiis’s hand paint fiberglass and rhodonite stool and a polished aluminum chair by Rick Owens is a likely sighting these days for those visiting ICD Brookfield Place in Dubai. 

The expansive take-over of the metal mesh, silicone cable, and metal branches chandelier under two pieces of furniture in the Foster and Partners-designed mega building’s central atrium is one of many juxtapositions orchestrated by Michèle Lamy for the ongoing exhibition, 'Chiaroscuro', in collaboration with Carpenters Workshop Gallery.

Michèle Lamy presents 'Chiaroscuro'

The design-focused show blends the international gallery’s roster names with local designers, all cherrypicked by Lamy in exploration of light and darkness, as well as the allusive spot in between. Maarten Baas, Aldo Bakker, Campana Brothers, Wendell Castle, Jose Davila, Drift, Kendell Geers, Roger Herman, Studio Job, Martin Laforêt, David/Nicolas, Rick Owens, Verhoeven Twins, and Atelier Van Lieshout hail from various parts of Europe, joined by local artists and designers Omar Al Gurg, Zeinab Al Hashemi, Talal Al Najjar and Latifa Saeed, as well as the Egyptian sculpture Khaled Zaki.

Lamy spent little time to deliberate about the invitation from ICD Brookfield Place Arts curator Malak Abu-Qaoud to organize the exhibition. After creating several installations in Dubai’s Al Quoz region and in fact signing with Carpenters’s founders Julien Lombrail and Loïc Le Gaillard for global representation of Rick Owens Furniture, Lamy was ready to return to the Emirati metropolis. 

'I quickly accepted the invitation to curate our show,' Lamy tells Wallpaper*. For Abu-Qaoud, tapping the fashion icon and ultimate aesthete for curation was an immediate reaction. 'Since seeing Michéle in 2008 on a fashion photography blog by Tommy Ton, I have been in total awe and throughout my years, I have been inspired by her inimitable sense of style, performances, and all-around eccentricity,' Abu-Qaoud adds.

A main attraction for Lamy was the chance to take over a space in Dubai’s rapidly evolving financial district to play with notions of luminosity and darkness in design. 'All the production I did before was in Al Quoz in these fantastic warehouses away from the Burj Khalifa and other skyscrapers,' says Lamy. 'To be in ICD Brookfield Place was a new sign for me that the world of Al Quoz and of skyscrapers is mingling, now led by Emirati women but also Palestinians, Egyptians, and Saudis.'

Although Lamy loosely separates her constellation of works into sections of luster and darkness, the experience is a malleable one for the viewer, not unlike the way we experience two seemingly opposites states of light. Owens’s Curial Aluminum chair (2022), for example, is coated in a metallic gleam that assumes and reflects the Gulf light that enters into the glass-covered exhibition space. 

Zaki’s white Carrera marble sculpture Serene (2023) adopts the titular adjective in its humanoid silhouette. Traversing the realm of abstraction, the artist’s figure recalls a calmly poised body, radiating not only light on its marble skin but also lightness through the artist’s smooth carving. 'There is so much incredible talent here and our mission has always been to build bridges that reach out to the world but also bring the best in the world here,' also says Abu-Qaoud.

The selection process was a serendipitous journey for Lamy who picked a few local names through images provided to her. 'I discovered arriving on site that I already had pictures of myself sitting in Latifa Saeed and Zeinar Al Hashemi’s booths and ateliers, inquiring about their work, of course, with different pieces in 2013 or 2014,' she explains.

Saeed’s Braided 6 (2013) is a two-piece edition of her furniture series in which she braids naturally-died thick cotton tubes in homage to the women’s hear-braiding tradition in the region. The seats in this iteration which sit under a dramatic wash of light stem from a collaboration with Studio Meru and feature blotches of colors throughout the tightly-woven textile. 

'I needed to make a story of creating some intimate ‘islands’ where the pieces could shine but could be dreamy and in an homey environment,' Lamy explains about her layout. Zeinab Alhashemi’s trio of sculptures Camouflage 2 (2022) which the artist had debuted in the second edition of Desert X AlUla makes the curator’s vision clear. Sitting on the corner of the glass box space, the rock-like forms with geometric silhouettes both draw and refuse the light on their angular surfaces. Adjacent to them is De Cotiis’s stool Untitled 43 (2022) with its wavy and tactile finish that contrasts Alhashemi’s sleek forms.

Chiaroscuro is on view at ICD Brookfield Place in Dubai until 18 March 2024

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