Optical Illusion

Wafa al-Hamad was a Qatari artist and lecturer with a background in art education and theory, holding a PhD from the University of Northern Texas, USA. One of her most notable bodies of work is her experimentation with optical illusion, which incorporates themes of traditional heritage into a distinctive calligraphic approach. Her use of abstract shapes and colours created compositions that stimulated the human eye to perceive the work in a way that could be perceived as deceiving the human brain.

In her work Optical Illusion , al-Hamad used geometric designs and inimitable shading and lighting techniques to create a unique calligraphic work in which light is deliberately shifted to highlight the word Allah on the upper left. Drawing inspiration from traditional Kufic (relating to Kufic Arabic script) labyrinth paintings, she employed Arabic letters to create the Islamic phrase “There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is his prophet,” inviting the viewer to contemplate the harmony between the visual and spiritual elements inherent in this painting.