Another Side of Dubai 1# Sun Signs

My name is Matthew Baker and I’m a artist born in London. My mission in life is to try and capture the magic and the stories that the world throws at me. I don’t restrict myself to any medium of art. I make theatre, I write music, I write, I draw and I take pictures. My art is for me, I make it for me. Audience intrigues me as art is little without it. Art needs no explanation if it is good so I see these articles I’m going to write about these pictures as a piece of art in itself too. A sister piece.

You can choose weather it’s good art or bad art but in the meantime I’ll be making more art. That’s what Andy Warhol said. It’s what I’m repeating. Just like the lense from the camera is repeating the moment for you. So let’s begin.

The picture at the top of the page I’ve titled Sun Signs (2021). I’m a Leo. I’m never sure weather I believe in star signs but my wife tells me I’m the definition of a typical Leo. I make little work witout her in mind. Maybe she’s my sun. She’s told me that she’s a fire sign too, an Aries. So I suppose fire is a part of me and her in her eyes, so it’s hard for me to miss that when I take pictures of the sun.

Sticking with the sun, taking a direct picture of the sun I always think is kind of magical because it’s so bright it turns the pixels on my camera white. It’s the most power thing in the galaxy. Isn’t that crazy. No life on earth could survive without it. It’s been worshiped, and for good reason. Everything in the daytime reflect the suns light. Maybe we’re all just shadows of it’s light. I see a lot of beauty in that, hopefully you can too. Even when you look at an image of the sun it’s hard to look at. I feel if everyone thought a little more about the sun the world would be a more pleasant place. No human can be as powerful or long lasting as the sun. Although the matter that makes us is could be as old as the sun but our consciousness isn’t. Strange paradoxes of life this picture reminds me of that.

The sign element of the image I think has an elegance to it. Steve Jobs said he spent days getting the correct font for the Apple computer. He said how we interact with objects matter. Subtle beauty matters in life. I can’t read Arabic but I just thought the type face was really fabulous. A real feast for the eyes. I kind of like that I don’t know what it says. It’s a mystery to me, like the sun.

The sign is trying to tell me something but I can’t read it maybe that’s the same with the sun too. I don’t know but it felt like I had a moment with the universe where I accepted the signs are often there but you can’t read them doesn’t mean the moment isn’t beautiful. Life lost in beauty is a life well spent, but can you read the signs? Can I read my own signs I making for myself. I don’t know and I might not want to.

The building are in a place called Deira in Dubai. They are apartments or condo’s where people live with this modernist utilitarian style. I thought this created contrast with the natural beauty of the sun and the traditional beauty of the Arabic script.

The mythology hits the modern.

The sun hits the sign.

The building grasps the sign.

The sign grabs you eyes.

The clouds still drift

The Sky just sits

The Sun burns for a million years

The pattern of the white cladding on the outside of the building I thought looked quite ugly. Which I thought was important not to miss. With all the beauty I didn’t want myself to forget the reality of the ‘whole picture’. Maybe it’s ugly beauty like the sun.

Sun Signs (2021) is a poem to the fire inside me and out.