Hoda Ackad

Magical Reality Series

I begin each piece by creating a photomontage with books ,magazines and notebooks found in my studio.
I then draw on my imagination, adding in lushly painted red lips ,exotic butterflies and sometimes people. This merging of real and imagined which I see as belonging together, creates a third world, yet another reality.
Magical elements are overlaid with transparency to create a mirage-like affect: it is unclear what is real and what is surreal.

I go further, asking the spectator “What is reality?” Is everything that we see, touch, or smell truly real or is it only our perception of the physical world, our brain’s analysis of what is perceived through the senses? My world is one of alternative facts, where the ephemeral and the imaginary overlap to coexist with the tangible.