Exploring identity
Identity|December 2020
Three Kuwait-based designers investigate the potential of a local design identity by merging existing regional and borrowed elements in an exhibition showcased at 1971 - Design Space in Sharjah
AIDAN IMANOVA
Exploring identity

The exhibition ‘Desert Cast: Towards an Identity’ is an exploration of existing design references and motifs found across Kuwaiti housing projects that have been reapplied in conjunction with local craft in an attempt to create an authentic design identity that acknowledges the past and present. The work of three Kuwait-based designers – Jassim AlNashmi, Kawther Al Saffar and Ricardas Blazukas – ‘Desert Cast’ was first showcased through the Abwab initiative during Dubai Design Week in 2018.

The first iteration presented a series of stools that analysed the replication of the classical Greco-Roman architectural elements that typically adorn Kuwaiti homes, in what the designers deem as a disingenuous sense of luxury. This contributes to the country’s struggle in developing a context-based design identity, which in addition to borrowed classical elements also includes motifs that are an “orientalist, overgeneralisation of Middle Eastern culture”.

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