CASE STUDY / WAFA ABUWAFA
Her art already existed. The work here was to find the idea connecting it—and build the identity, story and collector experience around that idea.
THE SITUATION
The risk was not a lack of material. It was that a contemporary practice could be flattened into familiar categories. The work needed to be encountered as art before it was explained through heritage.
02 / THE IDEA BEHIND THE WORK
Start with the finished world. Pull it back, layer by layer, until you reach the idea holding it together.
04 / THE WORLD
The identity, narrative, collection and collector journey form one connected presentation. The complete case holds 26 artwork entries and three original website languages.
See the finished experience03 / THE DECISION
The handle, edge and convex form belong to the work. Preparing the artwork for the interface meant isolating the object—not cropping or repainting it to fit a layout.
Inspect the presentation work02 / THE QUESTION
City becomes stitch. Dress becomes land. Leaf becomes pattern. Transformation, rather than one decorative motif, is the thread across the work.
Explore the two collections01 / THE IDEA
The same physical object carries something entirely different. That observation became a rule for the identity, the story and the digital experience.
Read the documented caseOriginal paintings by Wafa Abuwafa. Strategy, identity, narrative and digital presentation by Hala Hijazi.
A guided first look. Then the whole body of work.
Explore the full evidence
A DECISION WITH CONSEQUENCES
A conventional crop would have been simpler. Keeping the complete saj demanded a different image treatment, collection system and responsive composition. The edit served the interface. The painting stayed the painting.
Original case study · 25 pagesNOW, EXPLORE FREELY
The complete scope, both collections, the artist’s story, source material, technical delivery and original 25-page publication remain here to inspect.
CONCEPTION → COMPLETION
The finished website is the visible surface of a larger assignment: how the practice is positioned, understood, encountered, collected and found.
THE ORIGINAL IDENTITY
A VOICE, NOT A TEMPLATE
The form remains.
The meaning turns.
Olive ink, warm paper and an embroidered red accent. EB Garamond and Noto Naskh Arabic keep the words close to the hand-made world of the work.
TypographyEB Garamond · Noto Naskh Arabic
02 / ARTWORK EDITING & CATALOGUE
Two collections, twenty-six distinct encounters. Open an image, read its authored note, and move between the two collection systems.
A nearly bare field. One red structure begins to claim the surface. The first mark is not decoration: it is the start of a language.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
A line leaves the hand and becomes structure. Something fragile enough to break, strong enough to connect.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
One branch, painted in two languages. The olive leaf becomes a cross-stitch without announcing the moment of change.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
The dress does not carry tatreez as decoration. The dress becomes tatreez.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
A figure seen from behind. Cloth, place and pattern continue into one another.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
Jerusalem occupies the upper arc. Below, tatreez rises as a second architecture: a city held in another language.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
A hand releases a red thread. As it crosses the quiet field, the line becomes branches, flowers and tatreez: gesture turning into pattern.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
Two olive trees open onto a distant hillside town. The landscape holds the memory of place without reducing it to a single monument.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
Tatreez gathers at one edge of an almost empty field. A single red line leaves the pattern unfinished, holding the surface between absence and continuation.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
A cat rests beside a patterned textile while a hillside town appears beyond the terrace. Domestic detail and remembered place occupy the same view.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
Stone stairs, blue doors, olive branches and tatreez lead toward Jerusalem. Architecture and pattern are woven into one continuous city.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
A single figure in white opens into the circular field. Green and gold currents gather around the body, making stillness feel like the beginning of motion.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
A single whirling figure in a red robe beneath a gold disc, with scattered red floral marks on a pale saj.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
Two whirling figures in white and green against a gold field, beneath a pale disc on a saj.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
Two whirling figures in white and gold beneath a gold disc against a deep green field on a saj.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
Two whirling figures in white and red, with green sweeping brushstrokes and a gold disc on an ivory saj.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
Three figures cross a flowering field. Their linked movement is softer here, carried by scattered red forms and warm gold light.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
Three whirling figures in green, gold and red, the gold figure in front, amid curved green and gold brushwork on a saj.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
Three whirling figures on an ivory saj: red above, white at lower left and green at lower right, beside a leafy branch and gold disc.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
Three figures — white, gold and red — turn beneath a field of small red blossoms. The circle feels festive without losing its still centre.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
A green figure turns alone through an ivory field. Green brushwork rises around the body like a current answering the movement.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
A green figure turns beside an olive branch under a gold disc. The recurring gesture meets a quieter language of leaf, place and growth.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
Three figures in green, white and red form a balanced arc. Colour moves around the circle while the white figure holds the visual centre.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
Three figures turn beneath flowering branches and a gold disc. The scene joins the movement of the body to the recurring signs of garden and home.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
White and red figures turn against a deep green field under flowering branches. The dark ground compresses the space and intensifies the shared gesture.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
Three figures occupy different heights of the same turning field. Their asymmetry makes the movement feel less choreographed and more like a current still unfolding.
Available sizes: 35 / 45 / 55 / 60 cm, on request.
Original paintings by Wafa Abuwafa. Identity, writing, image presentation and the digital exhibition by Hala Hijazi.
03 / NARRATIVE & FAMILY ARCHIVE
The life story and family album are part of the artist’s presentation, not an appendix. Archival photographs keep their original status; the work here is their selection, captions, narrative and reading experience.
Life took me to many places. Painting was always my way home.
04 / IMAGE PREPARATION & ART DIRECTION
The dome, the handle, the edge and the image boundary matter. The artwork presentation preserves the complete object instead of forcing it into a rectangular crop.
The collector route carries the same tone as the art experience. The enquiry begins with an existing work or a commission and continues directly with the artist.
Original publication · English
Browse the original 25-page case study: the starting material, strategic diagnosis, final identity, authored narrative, collector journey and technical delivery.
Read the documented process
Open the complete case studyExperience / Wafa Abuwafa
Transparent artwork images preserve the whole saj, its handle and its outward curve.
The digital experience · Desktop & mobile
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YOUR PROJECT / THE NEXT CONVERSATION
Start with the work and the misunderstanding around it. We can explore what its identity, story and digital presence need to make clear.
Discuss your practice
