Damascus-SANA
Whoever sees his sculptures attests to him with a unique and distinguished talent through which the plastic artist Alaa Ali Muhammad was able to carve his name in the forefront of Arab sculptors with his amazing works, especially two sculptural murals through which he embodied the nature and beauty of his village.
Muhammad begins his talk to SANA from his last work, which he completed last May, which was a mural entitled “Omar’s Imprint” that met with success and admiration for those who saw it, indicating that it is an epic work whose characters and symbols are inspired by the place in the Oyoun Al-Wadi area and was the result of a vision with his friend Raymond Hajji, who accompanied him for 15 years In his work and the forums in which he participated in agreement with the supporting body.
Muhammad pointed out that the presence of the mural on a pivotal road linking Tartous with Homs, Hama and the rest of the interior regions made it widely watched by people, to be the first Arab artist to create two huge sculptures on two large rocky cliffs through which he revealed his secrets, considering that the completion of huge mural works is a dream for every artist.
Muhammad tells the story of the largest and first panoramic sculptural work in the Arab world, which he completed on a rocky cliff in the village of Broumana al-Mashaikh in 2007, where he agreed with the supporting party to establish a panoramic work on that cliff, centered in its middle, the main character of the work of the Mujahid Khalil Al-Khatib, who confronted the French occupation with Sheikh Saleh Al-Ali Where he summoned a group of sculptors and carried out the work.
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Muhammad benefited in sculpting the features of the Mujahid al-Khatib from a personal picture of him that he found with one of his grandchildren. As for the rest of the components of the work, they are all inspired by his memory filled with symbols and elements that enrich the artwork.
And because Muhammad is the son of the village of Khirbet Takla in the Sheikh Badr area, which has a mountainous nature that combines the beauty of nature and hard rock, he built from these components his artistic vision since he was a child playing with mud, rock and wood to make new births.
His choice of sculpture came as a result of his daily observations and his contact with blocks of various sizes and materials in his region, so that his studies at the Sculpture Department at the Faculty of Fine Arts would be the most prominent step in his formation and launch into worlds he always wanted with love.
The sculptor Muhammad stops at the important positive role played by his teachers, including Drs. Abdullah Al-Sayed, Ahmed Al-Ahmad, Mahmoud Shaheen, Fouad Dahdouh and Nizar Alloush, and mentions the sculptor Fayez Nahri, his teacher, who was credited with the realism that he loved.
The founder of the Inanna Center for Fine Arts turned to realism at a time when many artists turned to modernity, so realism and expressive realism gained the largest space for his production. He has many works in these two schools, as well as carving works belonging to symbolism.
Regarding the main theme that he wishes to embody in his works, the Syrian sculptor enumerates love, beauty and the human being as the son of an environment that dominated his soul, but taking into account innovative themes that parallel creativity in various fields, using limestone to carve rings and bracelets for his friends, in addition to using wood in some of his sculptures.
And about the birth sculpture from a tree branch that he executed in Mashta El Helou, he pointed out that this work was the beginning of the family cultural forum in Mashta El Helou in 2013, where he carved part of a branch that fell from a tree, consisting of a woman raising her left hand up and holding a leaf and the right toward the ground as a sign. To cling to it while a branch grew on the woman's body to announce the birth of the dilba again in a metaphorical image of seeing the emergence of a new Syria.
Regarding the idea of the Sculpture Forum in Tartous, which was the proposal of the sculptor Muhammad, he indicated that this idea, which received the support of officials and stakeholders in the province, is based on organizing a site for the permanent work of all Syrian sculptors and providing it with all its requirements such as roads, electricity, water, number, warehouses and mechanisms, so that its name will be Tartous, the mother of the martyrs, to launch the first session under his supervision. Artistic 2015 with the participation of more than 30 sculptors and sculptors.
Every sculpture created by Muhammad has a place in his heart because he does not sculpt a work unless a love relationship is established between him and the material extracted from it, hoping that his works will gain the admiration of the recipient who finds himself belonging to him and for whom he works.
Shatha Hammoud