AS IS | AbdelRahman Hamdan

Artist

From Amman, Jordan

Based in Amman, Jordan

We were lucky to interview talented AbdelRahman Hamdan about his art journey, perspectives on the creative industry, and some tips on how to experience art these days.

AR: Please, tell us a bit more about yourself. What brought you into art?

A: I'm a Jordanian artist born in 1997, graduated from the University of Jordan in 2019, holding a BA in Visual Arts with a focus on sculpture.

For a long time, I have been interested in geometric and organic shapes, noticing and observing them in everything that passes in front of me. My approach to art focuses on depicting human interactions and expressions, building structures that combine rigid and dynamic forms, leading to the creation of organized and bold chaos that forms a new way of visualizing feelings.

Experimenting with different materials and combining them with each other is the ultimate challenge for me, as I'm looking for the ideal material for each sculpture, collection, or series, which makes the work bewildering but memorable.

Using multiple artistic materials, I'm working with human motion as a medium, capturing movement in solid forms. While a concern with the figure animates my work, any identifiable features are abstracted to pure shape and color, possibly making for bizarre social situations out of the sculpture.

AR: What inspires you the most?

A: The idea of combining geometric and organic shapes, also the unlimited options you have in the sculpture field to produce your sculpture.

AR: Do you have any specific rituals while working (creating)?

A: Nothing specific, each sculpture or artwork has its own way to create it. Once I visualize the shape in my mind, I do the sketch, then the maquette and then I start working on the actual sculpture with the perfect material to achieve the final result.

AR: What would you recommend to someone who's new to art (rather artist or just an admirer), what to begin with?

A: I would definitely recommend the same way I got into art: first, you can start with a 2D experience like painting (mostly classics) to learn some basics. Once you can manage the basics, you can easily break them and let your imagination help you to create your own style. After that I think you will not be satisfied with doing only 2D; you need more, so it will be interesting to enter the 3D experience.

AR: Your top 3 favorite adjectives related to art?

A: You can visualize or create whatever you want. You have unlimited options to produce your artwork. Art is a worldwide language.

AR: The best angle to look at art is from?

A: Your own perspective and experience in life, because each one of us sees the same artwork differently based on what he's been through or the environment he lived in or even the culture he came from.

AR: The perfect phrase to start any conversation about art is:

A: Actually, the perfect way to start a conversation about art is the art itself because if we didn't have art in the beginning the artist or the viewer wouldn't experience a feeling or a condition that creates chaos or curiosity that powers any conversation about art to start.

AR: Must-read books to talk about art (or do we even need them)?

A: It's not a must, but reading in general in any feed gives us knowledge also in art. Reading about the history of art or other artists gives you the knowledge to know what others did and what you can also do.

AR: If you could change one thing in the art world - what would it be?

A: For me, art is not something to change, it's something to create and once you do it the other people or artists in the art world will notice what you did, in that moment we can say that the artist had an impact on the audience or the other artists by his art.

AR: Please, share your favorite quote (not necessarily related to art)

A: “Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time.” Thomas Merton

Thank you!

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