Al-Fenn Interview

1.How long have you been creating your art? What do you create?

I began at a very early age, so my parentstell me, drawing on walls and doors. The love affair with art and designnaturally led me to Art College, where I focused on illustration, video anddesign. After graduating from Central St Martins, I decided to explore agrowing passion for Arabic calligraphy and made out for Egypt for severalyears. Now I try to experiment and create a whole new array of work that rangefrom painted calligraphy pieces to video and interactive installations. A lotof my work has also expanded into actual commercial design projects inbranding, typography, illustration and merchandise.

2.Why did you start? Or what are you trying to communicate with your art?

The Visual Dhikr project began from adesire to see a revival in Islamic Art in some way, but ultimately, I wanted tosee, own and observe new and fresh ideas, styles and techniques from thetradition. I found that I could have my own journey and began to both learn thetraditional techniques but also break with tradition and begin to explore myown ideas. I believe I am trying to communicate a sense of what is profoundlyspiritual in our lives – the references to the majesty of God, the parables andQuranic references to love and light. Although some work is generic and isintended to be a purely aesthetic - an appreciation of letterform andcalligraphy. A lot of it still has to be read to be understood.

3.Is there a process or ritual you go through before you begin creating? And ifso, what is it?

No particular ritual, but there is aprocess of observation and seeking inspiration and at times you are hit with aspark. Once you have that, it must be jotted down or scribbled onto somethingfor use later. But from there it still takes time to develop into a pieceyou’re happy with. The build up and development of an idea is more significantthan the actual execution.

4.Did you face any obstacles informing your parents about delving into the artsprofessionally? Many Muslim families look down upon the arts in general as acareer, were your parents accepting/supporting? If not, how did you convincethem that this would truly make you happy?

I didn’t face any obstacles; my parentswere quite supportive actually. They didn’t quite understand what I was doingat times, but never discouraged me; their only pre-requisite was that I stickto my principles and do good ‘halal’ work. There is a lack of trueunderstanding of what art careers entail in some communities; there is also thefear that art careers aren’t financially lucrative as other paths. In the west,artistic careers are vastly different and potentially very rewarding, incomparison to the poor opportunities ‘back home’ – I believe this fuels themisunderstanding.

5.What advice would you give for those who are starting out or even justconsidering pursuing their artistic dreams?

For those more specifically interested incalligraphy or Islamic art, should take the traditional route of learning theestablished artistic methods and techniques. These are the foundations fordeveloping and experimenting with your own ideas – neglecting this often canresult in poor work.

Observe and take inspiration wherever you go, look at the work of others andlook at unusual places for new ideas. Travel!

Work hard. Not casually or whenever you have the odd spare hour, but regularlyplan it into your routine, daily work schedule and make it your focus and goal.

Finally, do it for a reason, a purpose andfor benefit – if you can.

6.What are some obstacles that you faced in your journey, and how did youdeal/have you dealt with them?

The main obstacle I faced in seeing thenature and type of work I do be accepted and seen in mainstream galleries orshows. The reason often is that calligraphic work is still seen as a ‘craft’and thus doesn’t seem to have the same level of respect as other contemporaryart forms. So the challenge here is always how curators and gallery ownersperceive the work I do and understanding that it isn’t the run of the milltraditional craft based work. This is more common in the western world than inthe east, where there are still galleries and venues hosting the kind of work Ido.

7.Do you admire any artists? (Famous or not!)

I admire loads of different types ofartists and designers. I took inspiration from both fine artists such as Warholand Lichtenstein but also from graphic designers such as the DesignersRepublik, David Carson and Japanese design scene. In terms of calligraphy Ihave the utmost respect for traditionalists such as Hasan Celebi (Turkey) andMus’ab Khudair Bursidi (Egypt) but Mounir Shaarani and Nja Madaoui areparticular favourites. More recently there have been a large number of youngerdesigners/artists who are doing some great work.

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