Ruh Al-Alam - Career

Career

Alam works under the title of "Visual Dhikr," which means visual remembrance, Dhikr in Arabic means the remembrance of God. He is known to be the first person to have coined the term ‘Visual Dhikr,’ which technically does not exist in the Islamic or Muslim terminology. In 2000, he created the term, however he officially launched the public website in 2003 with the same title and concept, which is now a trade marked name.

The early works of Ruh al-'Alam, at the Central St Martins College of Art & Design, included artworks of cartoons which was concerned about health such as drugs or smoking, including about western culture, and also Palestine. He comes from a traditional graphic design, photography and illustration background. Ruh al-'Alam has also worked on video and Motion FX projects, his most recent piece was about the project Visual Dhikr.

In 2006, Alam was commissioned by Sony BMG to work on the Danish group 'Outlandish', album cover art, also by Sony to contribute to an exhibition with the Sony PSP hand-held device. In 2007, he was commissioned by the KM Holding Group for Tamani Hotels, Dubai.

He has exhibited in numerous other places (United Kingdom and abroad) with different types of work; ranging from illustration, fine art, photography, graphic design and film. In particular in 2004, he held many exhibitions which were included at the Multi Faith Week in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office on October, on February he held exhibitions at Cambridge University, King’s University, and at the Kufa Gallery. An exhibition of "Dhikhrullah" (Ruh al-'Alam, Abu Ta-Ha, Mohammed Ali, Vaseem Mohammed, Raadhiyah Bint-Safar and Ayesha Ahmad) was held at the Whitechapel Centre from 28 March to 3 April.