Theme world

I first came to the UAE in 1993 to set up a franchise for the US based company Rock and Waterscapes, which specialises in the design, co-ordination and construction of rock and water sculptures found in hotels, theme parks, aquariums and shopping malls.

Dubai was a different place to what it is now. It was fascinating. There was no Sheikh Zayed Road, no Al Quoz, and the only hotel at the time was the Chicago Beach Hotel now Jumeriah Beach Hotel. Apart from that, it was all desert.

I left school in County Durham, north east England to start my career as an ecclesiastical stone mason. I was always fascinated by sculptures, especially gargoyles and I went to the States to find similar work. As luck would have it, I met a stone mason working at Monterey Bay Aquarium in California and got a job creating artificial coral reefs for them.

I worked on and off in the US for 25 years, creating the artificial Mount Vesuvius at the Mirage hotel and Skull Mountain at Treasure Island Hotel, Las Vegas, SeaWorld, San Diego and Camp Snoopy at Knotts Berry Farm, California.

My

Advertisement

FEATURED COMMENT Please click here to comment on this article

first job in Dubai was to construct the artificial caves at the Al Mahara underwater seafood restaurant at the Burj Al Arab. Other jobs include the Aspen rock columns at the entrance to Ski Dubai, Mall of Emirates, the replica London Tower Bridge at Lamcy Plaza shopping mall, the façade of Dolphin Bay, the Atlantis, Palm Jumeirah, Dubai and pillars and artwork at Ibn Battuta Mall.

I work with a team of 12 in Al Quoz, who are experienced model and mold fabricators who can visualise the ideas of designers. We provide consultation from the beginning stages of conceptual development through to the installation process. We can replicate any kind of natural rock by combining the right techniques to get an authentic match.

I have worked on sculptures for numerous restaurants, cafes and hotels in the UAE but my favourite project to date is recreating four of the 31 Ajanta Caves, which were carved into the rockface during the second century BCE in India, for the World Heritage Fund. This is the icing on the cake for me because the interior carving and artwork is intense.

We use many techniques to complete a job from Styrofoam, EPS foam, lightweight sculpting cement, various hard coats, but everything is non toxic. I don’t work with fibre glass because it’s dangerous. Everything I use is biodegradable.

Unfortunately, there is not as much work around nowadays as there used to be. The business has changed so much. Projects have dropped to a bare minimum. The profession now is so alienated from what it once was. I still cling to the art of sculpting but this has been replaced by computer generated imaging.

I designed the styrofoam boulder that was used in the first Indiana Jones film in Elstree Film Studios, in the UK and I also worked on the Universal Studios Jurassic Park ride. There is no set work for sculptures anymore because everything is generated by Adobe, for example the Doctor Dolittle film is computer animated.

It doesn’t put me out of a job, but when I started out I learned how to carve on lettering, then computer lettering came in at a quarter of the price than a stone mason and four times faster. It’s progress. It was interesting before. Everything I do is a challenge. People see what I do for a living and say it looks simple but I don’t want my work to look the same as everyone else. When I first came to Dubai there was no-one doing carving or rock work. There are a lot of people now who claim to be sculpturors but they aren’t trained in the profession. I never advertise my work, it all comes via word of mouth. My advice is, if you can draw, you are a step in the right direction.

Gordon Cruickshanks is the CEO of Theme World based in Dubai. For more details visit www.blooloop.com

---