Maraya, 2008-2015, is a large-scale art and new media project in collaboration with Glen Lowry and M. Simon Levin that links two urban waterfronts that share a similar design and plan. Taking its name from the Arabic word for reflection or mirror, Maraya focuses on Concord Pacific Place, an urban regeneration megaproject in Vancouver’s False Creek that has become an impetus for new thinking about 21st century urban development and how, through the mobility of architects, developers, and urban planners, it subsequently shaped one of Dubai’s first master-planned developments, the Dubai Marina. Research drew on the expertise and participation of artists, educators, scientists, theorists, urban planners and architects to create a variety of forms and aesthetic strategies such as exhibitions, public engagements and talks, academic presentations, publications, and an interactive online platform. Maraya offers a creative and critical response to the global movement of city building and the impact on those who live in, move through and in between them.
Public presentations include exhibitions at Museum of Vancouver, Art Dubai 2012, Centre A, International Symposium on Electronic Art (ISEA) in Dubai in 2014 and in Vancouver in 2015, and an international roundtable, “Speculative Cities.”
False Creek and Dubai Marina Seawalls, 2008 from MarayaProjects on Vimeo.
