During childhood, remember playing the game wherein you had to whisper messages to each other’s ears amidst a chain of players? The person at the end of the chain would then say the phrase out loud. But, as the messages have been passed from one person to another, it turns out that the message has been altered somewhere along the string of exchanges indicating unreliability of memory or communication.

Based on the lines of the same game, Dubai artists Sarah Daher and Anna Bernice have come out with an experimental artistic prompt. The idea has more than 40 artworks from 38 artists made within 48 hours.

The exhibition—After the Beep, opening on Sunday will showcase the works of these artists who took part in this artistic experimentation.

Earlier in May, the art curators released an open call for artists in the UAE via Instagram asking them to respond with new work by another artist. It started when artist Rami Farook, an Emirati artist and founder of Satellite came up with one piece, after which two others produced their ‘reactions’ within 48 hours, eventually leading to two chains of creation.

According to the curators, this unique initiative was to ‘experiment with artistic production that immediately follows a creative response and impulse under time pressure, to challenge the notion of a perfectly produced artwork.’

The list of participating artists is decidedly young and the names include Sara Ahli, Aya Afaneh, Asma Khoory, Arthur de Oliveira, Anita Shishani, Sofia Basto, Yasmin Hamad, Viktor Ikeda, Mohamed Khalid, Lubnah Ansari, Lena Kassicieh, Shebi Niazi, Trixie Danielle, and Solimar Miller.

The exhibition will take place at Art Space Satellite in Alserkal Avenue, Dubai.

During this period of time, the artists were only able to see the work that was made directly before theirs. Unaware of each other’s work, the output will be revealed to them and visitors on the day of the exhibition’s opening.