Allah: Al-Adl, Al-Qudous

Lulwah Al Homoud’s artwork offers a profound exploration of the interplay between traditional Islamic art forms and contemporary digital expression. Renowned for her intricate abstract works that deconstruct Arabic letters into complex geometric patterns, Al Homoud’s practice harmoniously blends spirituality, mathematics, and aesthetics. In this artwork, Al Homoud animates her signature geometric designs, transforming static patterns into dynamic sequences. This animation breathes life into the meticulous symmetry of her forms, allowing viewers to experience the fluidity and rhythm inherent in the mathematical structures underlying Arabic calligraphy. The transition from stillness to motion not only showcases the versatility of traditional art forms but also reflects the evolving nature of cultural identity in a digital age.

Al Homoud’s animation locates her within a lineage of artists who reinterpret Islamic aesthetics for contemporary audiences, such as Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian’s mirrored mosaics or Ahmed Moustafa’s algorithmic calligraphy. Yet, her work pushes this dialogue further by entering the temporal dimension, where the sacred geometry of Islamic art, often associated with permanence and divine order, becomes temporal, rhythmic, and alive. Recalling Gilles Deleuze’s concept of the fold, wherein spatial and temporal layers coalesce, generating new meanings through movement, in Duets Al Homoud’s piece enacts a dialogue between the fixed and the fluid, tradition and innovation, spiritual contemplation and digital dynamism. Through the animation of her patterns, she asks the viewer for  an active engagement with the flow of meaning over time. This generative interplay invites reflection on how heritage can be both preserved and transformed, offering a vibrant space where the past resonates within the present, and the sacred converses with the contemporary.

– Auronda Scalera & Alfredo Cramerotti, curators