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[ restart the art ] Back To The Start

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Two months after the workers handed us their original artworks and kicked off a whole lot of Restart The Art goodness, we decided to press pause and go back to the start...

We've been keeping the workers up to date on the project progress, but most of them hadn't seen the final artworks on anything bigger than their cellphone screens and some of them hadn't seen the final pieces at all, so giving these guys an opportunity to see their creations full size was a must...

Restart The Art has been a huge journey so far, and as the goodness around this [sameness] project keeps growing we felt it was time to take things back to the very start, with a trip to see the workers who kicked this project off. Back in December 2014 we visited the Al Futtaim Carillion accommodation to introduce the project and recruit workers to join us, and this trip, over 2 months later, was to show them the final artworks, which were a collision of their originals and the work of Dubai-based artists. Most of the workers hadn't seen the final pieces, or at least hadn't viewed them on anything larger than a cell phone screen, and it was humbling to see their excitement at what they are part of. The full story of the project and all 43 final artworks can be seen over at www.restarttheart.com

You can check out all the final artworks & the stories of the creators at www.restarttheart.com

One of the highlights of the evening was Sayen Ali and his new artistic creations. He's the guy at the end of the video holding up his colourful works and he had about 6 new pieces with him that he's been working on since we first met him 2 months ago.
If you go to the Restart The Art website you will see under his answer to "what is your dream in life?" he has put "to be an artist", on the evidence of his work, he already is.

Restart The Art began with the idea of seeing the workers as more than faces sitting inside a bus on their way to a job site, and giving them a chance to shake their creative bones and let loose their artistic skills. Seeing them lay eyes on the final artworks, their original work collaborated on by an artist partner, was pretty special, and we didn't need any translators to explain what pride in their work looked like.

We can't wait to move on to the final exhibition, where these guys will be the special guests, and then that day when they finally get to see work they helped create on the sides of their work buses.