Intricate tile patterns decorate UAE underpass walls portraying state and cultural iconography. The tile work is reminiscent of ancient Middle Eastern craftsmanship seen on historic architectural sites. Today, this intricate process is made possible by machine and manual labour conducted by South Asian workers. The tiling of a tunnel, which can continue for months generates wastage as unique shapes are cut out from rectangular porcelain tiles. This waste is a trace of the vernacular diagrams introduced into a modernist grid. Between 2014 and 2015 Divecha shadowed a contractor to investigate the design process of an underpass in Dubai, which was being decorated with intricate Islamic geometric patterns. Tunneling its way under Downtown Dubai this 1 kilometer long underpass connects the Dubai Financial District with the Business Bay Area. The artist collected discarded tile bits systematically from the factory floor of the contractor. He then hand numbered each waste piece and arranged the installation in reference to the tunnel’s Islamic geometric-patterned mosaic. The resultant works in an archive of waste that indexes labour and the mosaic pattern, while echoing a chaotic urban sprawl.

‘Negative heaps (of designated waste)’ was commissioned by H.H. Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, for the show ‘A Public Privacy’ curated by Mohammed Kazem and Cristiana de Marchi. Installation team: Hilal Thakur Titon Thakur (Dubai, 2015); Alicja Fiszer, Sara Szostak (Warsaw, 2015); Naimat Habib (Dubai, 2021).