Mohammed Alani

2021

Dialogue with oneself

Mohammed Alani tries to find a link between diversity and continuity based on a dialogue between everyday objects such as soap or a cork ball. These much used and diverse materials have been connected through a pencil which symbolizes human civilization. Without it, civilization would not have come into being, it is proof of the existence of ideas. All these objects differ in form and use, they are created out of pure industrial or a combination of industrial and natural materials, but what they have in common is that they are items used by man, each of them playing an important role in human life in their own way.

Mohammed Alani is using knowledge to create a link between things. Art as human knowledge is close to the human being. By means of intellectual dialogue, Alani visualizes the final form, generating a mental image of the end result of the piece of art. He successfully creates an aesthetic visual knowledge that amazes the audience and allows them to connect oneself, ones intellect and ones imagination.

Diversity is one of the characteristics of being, every existence in this world differentiates itself by means of color, form, hardness, weight and other physical characteristics. This diversity and plurality facilitates contact between everything that exists and the social nature of man, looking to create relationships to what exists, trying to determine what is useful to him and what not. The senses start this dialogue: touch, vision, taste, smell and hearing. By identifying beings and objects, he can create something for himself. For example some of the soft materials can be used to make clothes or shoes, while the hard materials can be used to fabricate tools. Perfumes can be extracted from objects with a nice scent, poetry is created with the pronouncing of words and instruments are used to create music. Like the DNA is the base of a male or female being.

Diversity in its outer form has impact on others, who can be fascinated by a piece of art, a beautiful building or an item they use either daily or from time to time. Without this diversity, everything would be boring, depressing and monotonous. The piece of music would consist of one note, the poem of a repetition of the same word and life would be one thing, one color. There would be no difference between women or man and woman, all would be duplicates of each other.  Art would also be an endless repetition of the same work. How depressing and boring would life be if there would be nothing to draw our attention? We go to the movies to watch something full of diversity and plurality and the same goes for theater and food. The beauty of life is in its diversity.

Artists are using the specific characteristics of materials, especially in the previous century in work of Boccioni, Picasso, César, Arman, Chamberlain and others. Mohammed Alani is presenting this philosophy in a simple, visual way, in a successful attempt to enter in a dialogue with the ideas of mankind without ambiguity or delusion.

Dr. Ahmed Khlaif Mankhi
translation: Sofie Van Den Abbeele