Shamin Sharum is a Malaysian artist and designer whose work moves between architecture, contemporary art, and interdisciplinary design. A graduate of UiTM and the University of Greenwich (RIBA Part 2), he is also the co-founder of multidisciplinary studio No-To-Scale*, where he develops product design, curatorial projects, and public-facing creative initiatives. His practice explores how memory, space, and fragments of the built environment shape the social psyche of the city, particularly within contexts shaped by globalisation and rapid urban transformation.

During his two-month studio placement at Dom Art Projects in Al Quoz, Sharum will work on a new project titled "A Self-Portrait of Al Quoz." Positioned between architecture and artistic research, his practice offers a nuanced view of how urban environments shape daily habits, forms of adaptation, and a sense of belonging. In this project, Al Quoz becomes a site of observation: an industrial district where migrant workers negotiate labour, rest, and everyday routines within a constantly shifting landscape.

Sharum plans to conduct fieldwork across the district, collecting urban detritus and discarded materials to create a site bricolage — assemblages that trace informal systems of order, congregation, and care that operate beyond formal planning. The studio will serve as a space for documenting, testing, and transforming these fragments into sculptural studies that respond to the district’s vernacular rhythms.

Ultimately, "A Self-Portrait of Al Quoz" aims to surface quiet narratives of movement, improvisation, and the everyday creativity embedded in the UAE’s evolving urban fabric.