Abu Dhabi, UAE
What can a sun, a street light, a building or a roundabout tell us about the way we remember a place?
For Emirati artist Eman Al Hashemi, these everyday forms become a language through which to explore memory, movement and the changing landscapes of contemporary life.
Her latest exhibition, The Horizon We Inherit, is currently on view at Iris Projects in MiZa, Abu Dhabi, bringing together ceramics, printmaking and mixed-media works. The exhibition opened on September 26 and will remain on view until November 26, 2026.
At the centre of the exhibition is an image that first caught Al Hashemi’s attention in Fujairah: the sun symbol. What began as a local observation expanded into a wider exploration after she discovered similar solar imagery during a trip to Kyrgyzstan.
The discovery raises a question that sits at the heart of the exhibition: why do similar symbols appear across cultures that are separated by geography and history?
Rather than looking for one definitive answer, Al Hashemi uses these recurring forms to explore what connects people. Ancient symbols meet contemporary buildings, street infrastructure and the visual rhythms of cities, creating works that feel both familiar and difficult to immediately place.
When the city becomes memory
The exhibition moves beyond archaeology and symbolism to consider the places we inhabit today.
Buildings, street lights and roundabouts appear alongside vessels and sun forms, reflecting the way infrastructure and redevelopment can shape how a city is remembered. As urban environments change, disappear or are rebuilt, ordinary elements can become unexpected markers of personal and collective memory.
For Al Hashemi, the vessel is particularly significant. It becomes a metaphor for something that can contain and preserve — whether sunlight, communication, stories or energy.
This idea of holding onto something runs throughout the exhibition: preserving fragments of places, experiences and visual symbols while allowing them to transform into something new.
A brighter direction
The Horizon We Inherit also introduces a noticeable change in Al Hashemi’s visual language.
While much of her earlier work has explored more muted tones, this exhibition brings brighter colours into the larger body of work. The shift developed from smaller colourful drawings that she had rarely exhibited before, turning colour itself into a new area of experimentation.
The result is an exhibition that feels playful as well as reflective — where repetition, colour and familiar urban forms create connections between the everyday and the ancient.
Born in Dubai in 1993 and now based between Sharjah and Abu Dhabi, Al Hashemi works across ceramics, printmaking, painting and installation. She studied Fine Arts at the University of Sharjah before completing an MFA in Ceramics at the Rhode Island School of Design. She also teaches at the University of Sharjah.
Her practice is deeply connected to questions of contemporary life, from mass production and everyday objects to the ways people connect with one another and with their surroundings.
Rather than offering visitors a single interpretation, The Horizon We Inherit leaves space for uncertainty.
Perhaps that is precisely the point. Some symbols survive because they continue to mean something, even when their original meaning has been forgotten. Others become meaningful simply because we encounter them again and again.
At Iris Projects, Al Hashemi invites us to look again at the things that surround us — and to consider what they might carry into the future.
The Horizon We Inherit
Iris Projects, MiZa, Abu Dhabi
September 26 – November 26, 2026
