By Yara Nasif
The world of Moby Dick comes to life…inside a small room at the Abu Dhabi Women’s College. A projection of the ocean fills up all four walls. A stranded boat occupies the center of the room. The ground around it is covered with open books. In one corner, a 3-foot long model of the whale hangs from the ceiling. It’s a mesmerizing experience that transports the viewer to a magical underwater world complete with the sounds of the ocean, music and quotes from the classic novel.
The creative mind behind this installation is Alyazia Al Dhaherii, a Graphic Design student, petite and shy, who describes her artwork in perfect English despite having never lived abroad. “I love to read, I watch about 20 different TV shows and I love to travel.” So far, she’s travelled to Germany, Paris, and Seychelles, which was her favorite. “I really want to go to New York someday!”
Alyazia has tried her hand at everything from photography to fashion design to video production but found that graphic design was her true passion. This stems from getting inspiration from different artworks: “Art can speak to you, you can tell what the artist is thinking without any words, it’s so powerful.”
Art was her sole inspiration for her “Book to Life” capstone project, a visualization of Moby-Dick – the classic novel by Herman Melville.
“I came across this artist that does book projections. He holds an empty book and projects butterflies and other images out of it. I was amazed because without any words, you could tell whether the book was fantasy or science fiction. I really liked the idea of recreating the book without any words!”
Alyazia spent the past four months dedicating her time to bringing her vision for this project to life. In addition to creating the 3-foot whale, she also had to individually spray glue on all the books so that they stayed open. “That was one of the hardest parts, I’d been collecting books but there still wasn’t enough in the end!”
If she had the chance to do this project again, she would definitely want to go bigger: “I’d want the whale to be at least 6 feet long! And for there to be even more books.”
One of her main goals with this installation is to encourage people to read more. As a way to get people interested in reading, Alyazia thought of the idea of bringing one of her favourite novels to life and sharing it with those around her. She wants people to enter the room and immediately find themselves inside the book. “I wanted to remind people that Moby Dick is an actual book because people are usually more familiar with the movie. Reading is so simple but so powerful!”
The installation has received an overwhelmingly positive response. The majority of those that visited were surprised, and there was a difference in reaction between those that read the book and those that didn’t. “The people that haven’t read the book enjoyed the installation but the ones that read it got more out of it.”
As for the future, Alyazia wants to try to step out of her comfort zone by doing something that she’s never done before. “I want to try to make a documentary. I have a rough idea right that I’m working on. It’s a very personal story.”
You can find Alyazia on Instagram @alyazia_d.
