Then you walked away .. Leaving me in pain 

I can’t let go of our memories .. & your loves’ stain

Kuwaiti artist Mohammed Alkouh introduces the fifth artwork from “Kalimat” series, a collection of work inspired by true love stories from Alkouh’s surroundings that did not end as couples wished or anticipated, in this body of work the artist portrays the ‘aftermath’ of breakups and state of broken hearts.

The series was first introduced to public October 2012 in ‘Without Boundries‘ group show at FA Gallery – Kuwait where visitors were ‘mind blown’ by Alkouh’s multi-creativity and deep thought artwork.

Each artwork in “Kalimat” is a separated two piece of vintage newspapers, written on them the word ‘Hob’ -Arabic word of Love. Although all artworks are inspired from different love story; they all depict the deepest sorrow of broken hearts.

I discovered the power of words; it’s amazing how a single word can change us completely! I started to tell stories via this method, vintage newspapers became my platform. As work develops, words and people’s merged together to create a unified form that surprised me how similar both can be!

Mohammed Alkouh

The Work

This particular ‘Hob’ expose sever pain; the breakup caused more damage, engraved deep down the heart and will remain as long as the love exists. This heartbreaking scene is depicting in both spots (left) and strips (right) which creates a visual effect of blood stains on left and scars on right meaning… both lovers will suffer .

In every ‘end’ usually one is more devastated and carries all the agony and misery by themselves. But here, edge of ‘Hob’ appearing in both plaque diverge the ‘common sense’ manifesting two partner completely damaged from their –perhaps– forced separation who can’t seem to let go of one another.

Alkouh smartly and carefully combine elements to carry out his artworks making sure they are all aligned together: The French Newspaper is for the default association of romance & Paris as city of love. Why Vintage? Because ‘newspapers always tell stories of yesterday’. Choosing one word when hearing it we know we are about to feel a mass of conflicting emotions, one word that has the powerful ability to carry pain & pleasure together… ‘Love‘. Therefore; producing a conceptual deep and reviving artwork with solid knowledge of techniques, puts Alkouh in front line of emerging young artists not only in Kuwait but also in the region.

Born in 1984 in Kuwait, film-photographer and printmaker Mohammed Alkouh is a self-taught artist who explores different types of art since childhood. After graduation from College of Business Administration – Kuwait University with BA in Marketing, Alkouh took his passion in art and exploration into a new level; he started working on projects with deeper meanings and touched by untold true stories from society, film photography and mix media became his method to cascade his findings.

Alkouh participated in group exhibitions at The Formative ARTs Institute Exhibitions, Al Qurian Cultural Festival, FA Gallery and Peace One Day. He also took several workshops locally & internationally: Nuqat, Art Dubai & Abu Dhabi Art Fair just to name a few.

For more information on Mohammed Alkouh’s works and entire ‘Kalimat’ series, visit his website.

Cheers