Al-Ghoussein, a Kuwaiti artist of Palestinian origin, is currently on a quest to visit every one of the 215 islands that form the archipelago of Abu Dhabi in the UAE. So far he has visited 30, and the resulting images — recently on show in his exhibition “Odysseus” at Dubai’s Third Line gallery — compel the viewer to pause and enter into his imaginative journey.

 

He put the same kind of tenacious energy into the series of images he created of the abandoned Al-Sawaher housing estate in Kuwait. In hundreds of visits over three years he entered the deserted apartments and offered a poignant glimpse into the lives of the people who once called the estate home.