MOTHER TRADE is a large scale work with sub-sections that SERAPIS made for Sharjah Biennial 16. Our FW25 collection is part of this work, together with a series of public gestures facing the port of Sharjah. The work as a whole, created through collaborations with local producers, craftspeople and the Maritime Academy of Sharjah, is conceived as a tribute to the maritime history and the many layers of trade and exchange in the region.
It was all produced locally, sourcing materials from Sharjah’s shipyards and industrial facilities. In the area of Mureijah it is an immersive environment blurring experiences of space between store, showroom, exhibition, scrap yard and public sitting area. In the area of Bait Al Shamsi it is a series of public structures, formulated into modular arrangements made from blocks of used clothing transportation bags, collected from local garment redistribution facilities. Each of these modules is completed with printed cotton fabrics with archival images of moments, textures and details from the making of the whole work, tied together with used ropes. They serve as sculptures for observation and contemplation, offering different viewpoints of the water and the port. Finally, the signage light work overlooking the sea, installed on top of the central market of Sharjah, is seen as a collaborative sculpture, a poetic phrase addressed to the port and its people, made from wooden boat scraps, metal and light.
