Floating Colours, 2018

Float­ing Colours is an ex­pansive, rib­bon-like sculp­ture that seem­ingly floats in the atrium of Dubai Mall, spanning the height of its three storeys. Created for Flag Day 2018, it was in­spired by the United Arab Emi­rates flag, the two sides of the ribbon showing the flag’s colours—one side is com­pletely red, the other is green, white and black. The sculp­ture is reminiscent of a long rib­bon whose curves seem to have been shaped by the wind. Its three-di­men­sional sweeps and colour­ful ap­pear­ance cre­ate an im­pres­sion of light­ness and joy, making it a potent sym­bol of national iden­tity.

The sculp­ture unfurls through the three-storey atrium; the intense phys­i­cality and pres­ence of this tem­po­rary installation draw attention to the architectural space, charging it with mean­ing.
Float­ing Colours was de­signed com­pu­ta­tion­ally and is made up of 22 separate pieces of aluminium covered in fabric. One of the projects biggest challenges was suspending the complex, 180-metre-long shape unobtrusively.

Images © The Dubai Mall (except image 4)