“Oneness”, an art exhibition featuring ceramic and mixed media installations by British artist Shahida Ahmed, recently opened in Katara as one of the highlights of this year’s Katara Ramadan festival.

“It is exciting for me to contribute to the Ramadan exhibition at Katara and to Qatar as a country. There are not many female Muslim artists in the west especially representing Islamic art and using clay as a medium, so this is an honour for me to share my work,” said Shahida Ahmed.

The piece looks at the façade of cubes using Kufic script which creates a universal code to the audience. Shahida tries to relate this with the bar code and identity of things. It looks at geometrical form and beauty through seven layers, however resulting back to the middle as the oneness, one God. The form of the cube also relates to worship and the kabba.

Explaining about her piece Shahida said: “Clay, wooden cubes in varying sizes, heavy in form and in their monochrome glaze, this huge installation exquisitely juxtaposes the most avant garde modern style to illuminate an ancient and eternal effect. But in their precise formation one is drawn through each layer of beauty to a point of singular transcendent completeness. ‘I continue to be inspired by simplicity and the beauty and perfection of geometry’.”

Commenting on the Katara Ramadan festival which includes Arabic calligraphy, she said: “I think this is a superb way to share Arabic Calligraphy in a festive month like Ramadan and to inform and educate the public about calligraphy and the history of Quran.”

“Oneness” exhibition will continue until August 11 at Building 18. The Peninsula

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