An interview with British designer Ruh al-’Alam

‘VISUAL DHIKR’ THE REMEMBRANCE OF THE DIVINE

Founder of ‘Visual Dhikr’, Ruh al-’Alam has become a prominent artist and designer in the British Muslim community. All of his work is inspired by Islamic calligraphy, particularly its role as a visual remembrance of God, and the intrinsic spirituality of Islamic art and culture more generally.

Tell us about your artistic path.
As a child I found myself drawing and replicating things I saw. I often made things out of leftover packaging and household products, so a creative side developed very early in childhood and my parents noticed that too. Throughout early school, I entered art competitions. I therefore naturally took up fine art and design in college and eventually earned a degree in graphic design at Central St. Martins. It was there that I began to change my outlook on what I wanted to create, and, having a lack of faith in mainstream art, I explored my own identity and what and how I wanted to communicate through art. It almost seems natural now, but then it was a journey to discover that I was born into a rich historical and artistic civilisation that based its premise on Divine Beauty. This is when I fully gave into Islamic art and architecture – I felt that we as a global community had lost a great tradition of being pioneering artists and began to accept and resort to poorly manufactured foreign imports.

I began to change the way I worked and what I produced, I eventually left for Egypt to practice calligraphy, traditional penmanship, at the hands of master calligraphers. This gave me a basis, a foundation, to work and produce what I deem to be my own styles and work. I feel I am contributing to a new movement and revival of Islamic art and creativity. It was at this time that Visual Dhikr was born as a project, a personal rihla (journey) that is on-going, experimenting, innovating and ultimately serving to be a constant dhikr (reminder).

The rest of the article you can read in the magazine.