The Shadow Within, 2025

The Shadow Within (2025) is a paradoxical exploration of light and self, of how illumination is revealed by concealing. The installation presents a horizontal translucent wall lit from within, where passing figures see their silhouettes emerge paradoxically inside the light, not behind it. The work inverts the logic of visibility, turning shadow into an inner reflection rather than an absence.
Through this inversion, Ziyad Alroqi transforms light into a vessel of contradiction, one that exposes the unseen and questions whether clarity can exist without obscurity. The Shadow Within becomes a mirror of human existence, where light and darkness, presence and disappearance coexist in a single luminous tension. Set at the entrance of Qasr Al Hokm District, the work becomes a reflective engagement with pedestrians as they move around a changing city.