11.10

Sky Forum at Sharjah Art Foundation

Sky Forum

11 October 2019, 5pm-9pm
Sharjah Art Foundation
Mirage City Cinema, Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah

Sky Forum Sharjah brings together experts across history, culture, astronomy and space science in discussion about the past, present and future relationship to the sky in the Gulf region, and wider transformations of the composition, nature and use of airspace and outer space. Sky Forum invites its audience to consider the sky above their heads not as a void but a multi-layered, complex cultural and legal space, both shared and personal, with a long history and rapidly changing future. Sky Forum will provide significant contribution to Shona Illingworth’s installation Topologies of Air.

Artist talk

11 October 2019, 9pm-9:45pm
Sharjah Art Foundation
Mirage City Cinema, Al Mureijah Square, Sharjah

Shona Illingworth will reflect on her residency with Sharjah Art Foundation in the context of the production of her installation Topologies of Air and her wider practice. Together with Marta Michalowska, Director of The Wapping Project, with whom she has been working on her latest piece for over two years, Shona will look at her interest in the sky and what underlines her drive to understand the historical, cultural, philosophical, political, legal  and scientific concepts of this space that is undergoing radical transformation in the face of technological and climatic change.
The talk will be illustrated with a special preview of work-in-progress and extracts from Shona’s earlier works including Lesions in the Landscape, 2015.


Topologies of Air was commissioned by The Wapping Project, London. Shona Illingworth’s residency in Sharjah and the Sky Forum Sharjah were organised and supported by Sharjah Art Foundation. Shona Illingworth is Reader in Fine Art at University of Kent and Topologies of Air form part of her research practice. The residency and the accompanying public programmes were generously supported by the British Council, DCMSand GREAT through the UK-Gulf Culture and sport programme.