Radial Histories, a six-part audio miniseries produced by Sharjah Art Foundation, weaves together oral histories, archival sound and scholarly commentary to narrate untold stories about visual art in Sharjah and the wider UAE from the early 1960s to the early 1990s, just before the inception of the Sharjah Biennial.

In this episode, host May Alqaydi and researchers Kamayani Sharma and Hasan Hujairi reflect together on the conceptual arc traced across Radial Histories. Their discussion revisits regional solidarities and the formation of local institutions, situating these developments within wider political currents, including Pan-Arabism, Cold War alignments and postcolonial exchange. Framing the period through internationalism rather than globalisation, the episode reconsiders these histories on their own terms—highlighting a pre-Sharjah Biennial art ecology that was already outward-looking, interconnected and fully in dialogue with the world.

Credits

Host: May Alqaydi

Guests: Hasan Hujairi and Kamayani Sharma

Music and Sound:

Holder, Ian, contributor. ‘Fall of the Berlin Wall (1989)’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. 

Holder, Ian, contributor. Broadcast from Radio Moscow, 19 August 1991. ‘Russian Coup (1991) Pt.1 (of 2)’, Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. 

Holder, Ian, contributor. Broadcast from Radio Moscow, 22 August 1991. ‘Russian Coup (1991) Pt.2 (of 2)’, Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.  

Langley, Richard, contributor. ‘Voice of Peace from Baghdad: December 29, 1990’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. 

Langley, Richard, contributor. ‘Radio Baghdad: January 16, 1991’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. 

Langley, Richard, contributor. ‘Mother of Battles Radio: January 27, 1991’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. 

Gavaras, Tom, contributor. ‘Radio Moscow NYE Show with Joe Adamov (Studio Recording): January 1, 1980’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.  

Ministry of Information, Films Division. ‘NM0155: Nam Belgrade to Belgrade’, 1989. Government of India. Internet Archive. 

Greenall, Dan, contributor. ‘UAE Radio Dubai: Circa 1983’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive.

Broadcast from UAE Radio, 11 December 1985. ‘1985-12-11 to 1985-12-13 International Shortwave Radio Broadcasts’. Loren and Roger Cox Radio Recordings. Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications. Internet Archive. 

Broadcast from Dubai. ‘1981-08-27 Shortwave Radio Broadcasts’. Loren and Roger Cox Radio Recordings. Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications. Internet Archive. 

Broadcast about Arab history from Dubai. ‘1981-06-20 to 1981-06-22 Shortwave Radio Broadcasts’. Loren and Roger Cox Radio Recordings. Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications. Internet Archive.

Sierra Fox Trot broadcast, Dubai. ‘1981-02-16 Transcription Records - International Radio Broadcasts’. Loren and Roger Cox Radio Recordings. Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications. Internet Archive. 

Broadcast about the Arab in history, Dubai. ‘1981-06-20 Dubai - The Arab in History - BBC Meridian’. Loren and Roger Cox Radio Recordings. Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications. Internet Archive. 

Broadcasts from UAE Radio. ‘1981-Summer FM & Shortwave Broadcasts’. Loren and Roger Cox Radio Recordings. Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications. Internet Archive. 

Holder, Ian, contributor. ‘Radio Moscow (8 August 1970)’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. 

Harrold, Tim, contributor. ‘Radio Berlin International: July 1, 1990’. Shortwave Radio Audio Archive. 

Broadcasts from Radio Moscow World Service – Music and News. ‘1981-05-11 Music of John Dowland, Shortwave Radio Broadcast’. Loren and Roger Cox Radio Recordings. Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications. Internet Archive. 

Broadcast from Radio Cairo - Music. ‘1981-01-11 and 1981-04-13 International Shortwave Broadcasts’. Loren and Roger Cox Radio Recordings. Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications. Internet Archive. 

Broadcasts from Radio Baghdad, Radio Cairo and Dubai Radio. ‘1981-02-14_15 Shortwave Broadcasts - February 14-15, 1981’. Loren and Roger Cox Radio Recordings. Digital Library of Amateur Radio & Communications. Internet Archive. 

References:

Al Tashkeel, 1984–1992. Emirates Fine Arts Society, Sharjah. https://altashkeel.ae/media/

Appadurai, Arjun. ‘Here and Now’. In Modernity at Large: Cultural Dimensions of Globalization. University of Minnesota Press, 1996.

Appiah, Kwame Anthony. ‘Cosmopolitan Patriots’. Critical Inquiry 23, no. 3 (1997): 617–39.

Enwezor, Okwui, Katy Siegel, and Ulrich Wilmes, eds. Postwar: Art Between the Pacific and the Atlantic, 1945–1965. Haus der Kunst and DelMonico Books/Prestel, 2016.

Glossop, Ronald. ‘Meaning of the Twenty-First Century: From Internationalism to Globalism’. Comparative Civilizations Review 76, no. 76, art. 15 (2017):130–36.

Haines, Chelsea, and Gemma Sharpe. ‘Art, Institutions, and Internationalism, 1945–73’. ARTMargins 8, no. 2 (2019): 3–14.

Harney, Elizabeth, and Ruth B. Phillips. Mapping Modernism: Art, Indigeneity, and Colonialism. Duke University Press, 2019.

Jameson, Fredric. Globalization as a Philosophical Issue’. In The Cultures of Globalization, edited by Fredric Jameson and Masao Miyoshi. Duke University Press, 1998.

Jones, Caroline. ‘Biennial Culture’. In The Biennial Reader, edited by Elena Filipovic, Marieke van Hal and Solveig Øvstebø. Bergen Kunsthall, 2010.

Jones, Phillip W. ‘Globalisation and Internationalism: Democratic Prospects for World Education’. Comparative Education 34, no. 2 (June 1998): 143–55. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3099798.

Oguibe, Olu. ‘A Brief Note on Internationalism’. In Global Visions: Towards a New Internationalism in the Visual Arts, edited by Jean Fisher. Institute of International Visual Arts and Kala Press, 1994.

Rogoff, Irit. ‘GeoCultures: Circuits of Art and Globalization’. Open! 16 (2009): 106–15.

Sassen, Saskia. ‘Spatialities and Temporalities of the Global: Elements for a Theorization’. Public Culture 12, no. 1 (2000): 215–32.

Vogel, Sabine B. Biennials: Art on a Global Scale. Springer, 2010.

Editorial and Content Support: Kate Sutton, Kathleen Butti, Natalia Ulloa, Rajwant Sandhu and Rosalyn D’Mello

Research Associate: May Rashed

 

Sound Engineer and Designer: Riya Raagini 

Podcast Producer and Writer: Kamayani Sharma 

Executive Producer and Writer: Jyoti Dhar

Special Thanks: Hoor Al Qasimi, Nawar Al Qasimi, Dima Bittard, Hasan Hujairi, Alyazeyah Al Marri, Mahshid Rafiei, Ghaith Khoury, Salwa Mikdadi, Sheikh Sultan Sooud Al Qassemi, Abdullah Al Saadi, Talal Moualla, Nasir Nasrallah, Abdelaziz Mohamed AlMulla, Yalda Bidshahri, Joseph De la Cerna, Unnikrishnan Suresh Babu, Magdi Emad, Ismail Al-Rifai, Ziad Abdullah, Abdullah Hussein, Mohamad Al Saadei, Jiwon Lee, Tima Ouzden, Noora Al Mualla, Ahmad Makia, Heba Hosny and Jawed Ali Mohammed

This episode was recorded on 6 April 2026.

© Sharjah Art Foundation, 2026