Holes

Qatari artist Yousef Ahmad produced Holes during an era in which his career was characterised by experimentation, with his primary source of inspiration being the One Dimension philosophy developed by the Iraqi artist Shakir Hassan Al Saïd (1925–2004).

Like most of Ahmad’s work, this piece was crafted using alternative media such as paper and cotton. However, the influence of Al Saïd can be seen through the distressed state of the materials themselves. As a result, its surface is heavily textured, further emphasising the colour palette of choice, which is composed of varying shades of a blue-toned grey, with a pale green and a weathered sand-coloured strip in between. The titular holes appear to be punched or carved into the plywood base; they are centered within the piece and are uniform in size and number per row but not in their overall appearance.