ICD Brookfield Place Arts is pleased to announce the opening of London-based, Iraqi artist Yamam Nabeel’s Intersecting Realities: Waiting for Time, on view through the 30^th of June.

Waiting for Time is a comprehensive show of Yamam Nabeel’s long‐running series of portraits. More than sixty subjects were interviewed and photographed for the project internationally, resulting in this curated overview of twenty‐nine stories and photos.

Armed with a 1960s medium‐format Hasselblad and Mamiya 7 camera, Nabeel travelled from London to Berlinto Dubai from 2020 to 2022, recording and interviewing individuals from all walks of life – from playwrights and comedians to hospital workers, journalists, and lawyers – on their recent experiences. These one‐on‐one human moments captured outside in a place of the subject’s choosing, encapsulate intimate, individual experiences as well as common threads, highlighting both the great disparities and commonalities between people in today’s world. While his work is a glimpse into a reality situated in the past, it sheds light on the many commonalities converging to create a brighter, more optimistic present.

“What began as a study of perception versus reality in a time of a global pandemic has turned into a collection of intersecting stories of (extra)ordinary people living a shared reality – a reality no one had predicted,” said Nabeel. “As we were learning to live with Covid‐19 and its variants, I had the opportunity, almost like an epilogue, to photograph and interview residents of Dubai. Thus, the project, now known as Intersecting Realities,was completed. This exhibition is the culmination of almost two years’ worth of efforts in documenting the stories of these people and sharing their individual experiences in these extraordinary times.”

Commenting on the exhibition, Rob Devereux, CEO of ICD Brookfield noted, “Yamam Nabeel’s images and stories remind us that though we can feel most isolated when faced with the real and existential losses and stresses of the past years, we are not alone. These are human feelings and experiences, felt profoundly and individually, but also lived the world-over. We are thrilled to be presenting this work at ICD Brookfield Place to the diverse Dubai community, with whom we know it will resonate.”