KERALA / Doha, QATAR :
Doha:
Le Pouce, or the giant thumb sculpture at Souq Waqif, is a popular public artwork installed by Qatar Museum. What would happen when that same larger-than-life art piece is carved onto pencil graphite. That’s the thought that inspired Farhan Hameed, a carving artist residing in Doha to recreate the same artwork. The result was another beautiful miniature artwork atop a pencil!
A motion graphic designer from Kerala, India, Farhan in his free time fiddles with his pencil and scalpel, and creates miniature carvings of popular buildings and other art pieces with the most recent one being Burj Doha.
Farhan has also received compliments from contemporary Qatari artist Ahmed bin Majed Al Maadheed whose signature he had carved and shared. Ahmed commented on the Insta post writing, “Amazing details job. Thank you brother for your work.”
Without any knowledge about pencil carving, he attempted to carve ‘I Love My India’ onto a pencil. About a dozen pencils later, his carving was complete. “This was my first work and it was nowhere near perfect but then it was something that I made with a lot of effort. I had no knowledge of carving tools and the pencil lead would break easily. It took over three days for the piece to be completed,” says Farhan. He attempted a few more and then sent some of the snaps to Afsal who shared his knowledge about the tools used – scalpel to sharpen and needles for detailing and making holes.
He moved to Doha for work and that is when he took up pencil carving again and started sharing them on his Instagram page. People started liking his work and recognition came when his artwork was shared by a few in the Kerala film industry. “I carved a movie name “Thamaasha” and that was part of the movie’s 25th-day screening celebration. It was then that my parents came to know about my carvings. They would see me fiddling with the pencil and doing something but allowed me to carry on with whatever I loved,” says the 27-year-old artist.
Of all the pencil carvings that he has done in the last few years, heart lock is one of his favourite and one that took many trials. He says, “In a heart lock, you have to carve the pencil in such a way that there are two hearts locked within each other. I tried it many times but it was recently that I was able to finish it successfully.”
The carvings on social issues have garnered the most support on social media, with the most recent one named Eid With Aqsa – a pencil carving of the Al Aqsa Mosque. Prior to that Azaadi carving on the CAA issue in India was also much appreciated among his Instagram followers as he says, “Social issues connect with a larger audience and it is a way for us artists to share our opinion as well.”
Though all his carvings take a lot of patience, he would like to continue his work and bring many more carvings to life. “There are quite a few beautiful structures in Doha. My dream is to carve them in a miniature form and if possible to set up an exhibition sometime later,” he concludes.
source: http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com / The Peninsula / Home> Doha Today> Community / by Anisha Bijukumar, The Peninsula Online / June 06th, 2021