Futuro Estate

Nick Ferguson. Futuro Estate. 2015. Installation View. Photo: Adrian Lee

Nick Ferguson. Futuro Estate. 2015. Installation View. Photo: Nick Ferguson

Nick Ferguson. Futuro Estate. 2015. Installation View. Photo: Nick Ferguson.

Nick Ferguson. Futuro Estate. 2015. Installation View. Photo: Nick Ferguson

Nick Ferguson. Futuro Estate. 2015. Installation View.

Nick Ferguson. Futuro Estate. 2015. Installation View. Photo: Nick Ferguson.

Futuro Estate is a permanent public artwork sited on the Al Majaz Waterfront, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It was commissioned by the Maraya Art Centre for the exhibition Imitation Game 2015-16 and funded by the Maraya Art Foundation.

The commission extends the artist’s research into political histories of the built environment, focusing on bird life on the seafront area of Sharjah. This is an area that in the last 50 years has undergone rapid transformation from fishing port and wetlands to an oil-fueled metropolis. The work, a birdhouse with nesting boxes for 42 pairs of birds, is imagined in the first instance as a kind of probe that, by being inserted directly into the environment, will serve a measure of birdlife in the city – an instrument through which to glimpse an emerging and shifting ecology.

Unlike the dovecotes that grace rural residencies through much of the Middle East, and which provide a home for birds that serve as both companion and food, Futuro-estate is proposed as a resource for feral birds. In so doing, it functions as a heuristic instrument, staging social relations in order to prompt questions. Which species, if any, will make use of it? If it is occupied, will it serve simply as a platform on which to gather, see and be seen or will it be colonised for nesting? How might its existence modify our understanding of the “right to the city”, so that “right” may be taken as a privilege of Sharjah’s birds as much as one belonging to humans? And if so, will some birds be thought of as more rightful residents than others, say, indigenous species as opposed to those more recent, if naturalised, arrivals? Which species, once indigenous to this coastline will be conspicuous by their absence?

The work will be of interest to researchers at the intersection of critical public art, environmentalism and urban landscaping in the context of the Middle East. It shows how the medium of public art can deliver institutional critique in a context where other media such as journalism are censored by a regime. It also shows how a public artwork that is informed by environmental expertise (as opposed to critical theory) can perform the types of change (in this case a more harmonious relationship with nature) that the critical message of the work signals as necessary. In this way the work contributes to the park’s role as an open-air space for the display of contemporary art, to research into sustainability, well being and mobilities, and to theories of contemporary art.

Project Development 

The output responds to an invitation from the Maraya Art Centre to contribute to an exhibition planned for the park. The curator, Alexandra MacGilp, had seen the artists work relating to urban birdlife, including, in 2006, a dovecote exhibited at Space Station 65, an artist’s run gallery in South East London

The research began with the design requirements of a birdhouse that would be functional and ‘reveal’ its site. The artist liaised with Dubai-based ornithologist Mark Smiles to identify bird species which would potentially colonise an urban bird house in the UAE, and establish design requirements that would encourage the birds to nest.  The most-likely candidates, it was proposed, were the indigenous laughing dove and the ring-necked parakeet (a newcomer from the Indian subcontinent). These discussions informed choice of materials, decisions about the size of nesting boxes and their openings, the height from the ground and the number of birds that could be accommodated. They also clarified exclusions, namely the migratory birds who winter in the UAE on coastal wetlands, and who have been forced out of the city because their habitats have been destroyed. In this way the discussions provided a political framework within which the artwork might be read.

Working within this framework, the idea was an inclusive design for the birds that remained, one suitable for as wide a range of species as might want to inhabit the city and, as some species such as sparrows are sociable nesters who prefer to live in proximity to each other, the birdhouse would have multiple modules.

With respect to the site, it was important to acknowledge the UAE’s status as an intersection of international networks (historical and present; animal and human), yet one that is uniquely articulated in terms social relations and built forms. Also significant was the UAE’s sense of futurity – a place yet to come – , and which markets itself as a testbed for living under the conditions of a warmed globe.

In combination these considerations gave rise to the design. Because of the intense summer heat, fiberglass was the material of choice for the birdboxes, possessing, as it does, excellent insulating properties. Formal and conceptual influences for a futuristic, international-style type configuration include, Georgii Krutikov’s Flying City Apartment Complex (1928), Jacque Fresco’s Mega Machines Matti Suuronen’s Futuro house (1970). Influences for the proportions and the number of ‘pods’ was J Bourgoin’s Arabic Geometrical Pattern and Design.

The artwork was launched in conjunction with a public programme at the Maraya Arts Centre, a catalogue, an interview with the artist on Dubai’s local TV network and an interview with the artist by the Maraya Arts Centre, made available online through the Maraya Arts Centre website. For the media interview extracts, click here:

Other press:

Afshan Ahmed. 2016. The country’s art and soul on show: 12 most creative works on display in the UAE, January 29, 2016  Available at:

https://www.thenational.ae/arts-culture/the-country-s-art-and-soul-on-show-12-most-creative-works-on-display-in-the-uae-1.108176#12

N P Krishna Kumar. 2016, What makes us human: Turing Test put to the test in Sharjah. May 5, 2016. Available at:

https://gulfnews.com/entertainment/arts-culture/what-makes-us-human-turing-test-put-to-the-test-in-sharjah-1.1661040

Research, planning, building

Left to right. Nick Ferguson, Ali MacGilp and Guiseppe Moscatello. Bedale Street, London. June. 2015.

Laughing Doves. Native to UAE and potential inhabitants of the estate. Photo. Ken Harvard

Wetlands on the Persian Gulf. Prior to the construction of Sharjah’s metropolis, these wetlands extended along the waterfront area. Photo: Nick Ferguson

Bird trap on Al Noor Island, Sharjah. Crows caught in the trap are deported from the city. Photo: Nick Ferguson. 2015

Geogrii Krutikov.  1928. Flying City Apartment Complex

Jacques Fresco. Mega-Machine. 1990s. Venus Project

 Matti Suuronen. 1968. Futuro House

Nick Ferguson. Futuro Estate. 2015. AutoCAD drawing by Tommy Haycocks

Nick Ferguson. Preliminary drawing for Futuro Estate. 2015. Pencil on plotting paper.

Nick Ferguson.  Futuro Estate. 2015. Installation in progress. Photo. Nick Ferguson