Astri Wright, Curatorial Essays in _Seeker, Sentry Sage: Shades of Islam in Contemporary Art_ (Exhib...

Seeker, Sentry, Sage:Shades of Islam

in Contemporary ArtM a y 1 1 - J u n e 1 9 , 2 0 0 6Mal twood Ar t Museum and Gal le ry

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P r e f a c eWe welcome and congratulate the artists who created the “Seeker, Sentry, Sage: Shades of Islam in Contemporary Art” exhibition. This is truly a global exhibit full of energy and life. Through the efforts of Dr. Astri Wright these contem-porary artists and their work have come to the University of Victoria

from Vancouver, Vancouver Island and Victoria via South Asia, Africa, the Near East, the Caribbean and Europe. These artists bring mul-tiple disciplines to the exhibit and the effect is powerful. Timelessness joins immediacy in this visual feast: “Seeker, Sentry, Sage: Shades of Islam in Contemporary Art.”

The statements which appear in this catalogue are testimony to the far reaching concerns and depth of commitment of each artist. Cultural development is linked with artistic expression in exploring the concept of community on a number of levels and in surprising and original media.

We congratulate Guest Curator, Dr. Astri Wright, whose vision has em-braced the broadest concepts while attending to the finest details.

Logistical problems of communicat-ing with artists around the globe have been taken in stride as momen-tary challenges. With the keen eye of an experienced art historian and curator, Dr. Astri Wright demon-strates the remarkable ability of simultaneously looking through both ends of many telescopes in curating this visually stunning exhibition.

Kerry Mason, M.A. Curator

Martin Segger, F.R.S.A. Director

Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery, University of Victoria

T a b l e o f C o n t e n t s02 Table of Contents

04 Preface Kerry Mason & Martin Segger

05 Acknowledgements

06 Seeker, Sentry, Sage: A Curatorial Introduction Astri Wright

11 Shades of Islam in Contemporary Art: Art/Historical Reflections Astri Wright

19 Contemplations in the Garden Pari Azarm Motamedi

20 Drawing from the Heart of Rumi: towards a pedagogy of the awakening heart Leslie Stanick

22 Hudud-i Din: Research Notes for a new series Symbolism Within Abstraction Yasmin Pyarali Karim

26 ASHK Tanya Evanson

27 Passage to the Soul Rozita Moini-Shirazi

pgs. 2-4, 7*, 11, 13-14, 16, 35-2, 40, 45-2, 46-2, 51-2, 55: Photos by Astri Wright * Digital work by Mike Huston

pg.5, 41-2: Photos courtesy of Farukh Khedri pgs.6, 31: Photos courtesy of Amir Ali Alibhai pg.8: Photo courtesy of Farheen HaQ pg.9, 38-2: Photos courtesy of Yasmin Pyrali Karim pg.10: Photo by a friendly passer-by pg.17: Photo courtesy of Jabbar Al Janabi pgs.18, 47: Photos courtesy of Pari Azarm Motamedipgs.20-21, 49: Photos courtesy of Leslie Stanick

Amir Ali Alibhai, Earthprayer #7, 2006. Multimedia floor installation on cloth (coloured rice, flower-petals, beach glass, sand plus organic objects found on campus and nearby beaches), 1.83m X 1.83m. Gallery staff, students, and members of the public collaborated on filling in the ‘Swirling lotus’ design created by the artist on opening day and during the reception.

Farida Mawji, Rhythm, 2003Etching (detail), 53.5cm X 53.5cm

Farida Mawji, Memories, 2003Photo transfer and etching, 48cm X 53cm

Sharifa Donna Webb, Something Unexpected, 2000Hand-made paper book, 15.5cm X 12cm X 143.5cm

30 Amir Ali Alibhai

31 Tanya Evanson

32 Riyadh Hashim

34 Farheen HaQ

35 Sherazad Jamal

36 Jabbar Al Janabi

38 Yasmin Pyarali Karim

39 Farida Mawji

41 Farukh Khedri

42 Fariba Mirzaie

44 Rozita Moini-Shirazi

45 Sharifa Donna Webb

46 Pari Azarm Motamedi

48 Leslie Stanick

50 Najat Zakhour

52 Endnotes

55 Bibliography

ORIGINAL DESIGN AND LAYOUTAngela Rook (www.angelarook.com)

IMAGE CREDITSpgs.26, 32: Photo stills by Megan McKay for Bowen

Arrow Productions pgs.27-29,44-2: Photos by Rozita Moini-Shirazi pg.33-1: Photo courtesy of Riyadh Hashimpg.33-2: Photo by Melissa Kwan pg.34: Video stills courtesy of Farheen HaQ pgs.37, 43: Photos by Frank Tresidder pg.51-1: Photo courtesy of Najat ZakhourIn addition to the credits listed above, all photos and im-ages in the catalogue (with the exception of the UVic logo on the front cover) have been digitally retouched and/or edited by Angela Rook.

COPY-EDITING Kerry Mason

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A c k n o w l e d g e m e n t sAny exhibition realized in space and time is but the tip of an iceberg of work that has gone into its mak-ing. The community of people who contributed in smaller and larger ways to realize this exhibition is vibrant and large; thus sadly, each person cannot be mentioned by name though their energies resonate through this space. My warmest thanks to you each and all. You have all made the process of work-ing in a collaborative manner both a learning process and a joy.

For financial co-sponsorship of the symposium and catalogue at the University of Victoria, I would like to thank President of the University of Victoria, Dr. David Turpin; Vice-Pres-ident Academic, Dr. Jamie Cassels; Dr. Giles Hogya, Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts; Dr. Andrew Rippin, Dean of the Faculty of Humanities; Director of Film Studies, Dr. Lianne McLarty; Dr. Richard King, Director of the Centre for Asia-Pacific Initia-tives; Dr. Murdith McLean, Acting Director of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society.

For his support from the first mo-ment of proposing this exhibition, my thanks go to Martin Segger, Di-rector of the Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery. I am deeply grateful to Curators Caroline Riedel (last year) and Kerry Mason (this year); Kerry Mason in particular has provided inestimable (and accelerating) as-sistance throughout the last three months leading up to the exhibition. I would like to thank Maltwood Curatorial Assistants Anne Va-vrik, Stephanie Webb, Eve Millar, Machiko Oya, Jennie Biltek, Katie Mogan, and Graphic Designer

Angela Rook, whose beautiful prod-uct you hold in your hand. Volun-teers Elizabeth Crossley and Laura Vanags also helped wonderfully during the exhibition installation. Thanks also go to Technical Director of the University Centre Mike Figur-ski. As my Special Curatorial As-sistant for this exhibition, Michelle Smith (M.A. student in Islamic Art in the Department of History in Art) has put in countless hours of her time; I am most deeply indebted to her. Each has contributed to the final form of the exhibition’s fram-ing in important ways and something would have looked different, had any of them not been involved.

From the Fine Arts SIM lab: warm thanks to Michael Huston for his photoshop expertise and general helpfulness, and to David Broome, for getting the Fine Arts webmail working even on weekends and helping with technical issues all of which went way above my head. Both have gone beyond the call of duty to help out.

For being my teachers at the be-ginning of this part of the journey, which started in 2002 (my right hand on my heart) I thank: Dr. Arif Babul, Dr. Faroukh Mitha, and Dr. Hussein Keshani ~ the original members of the informal working group we convened after the social ramifications of 9/11 began to be apparent. Beyond the group, thanks go to Dr. Naznin Virji-Babul, and Dr. Erica Dodd.

Thanks, at the end of this long but still partial list, go to: Karen Kin-nis, Reserve, and Lynne Wood-ruff, Art History Librarian, both at the MacPherson Library; Debbie Kowalyk, for computer-/file-opening expertese; Darlene Pouliot in the History in Art main office for assist-ance across many small fords; Frank Tresidder for putting up (and with) the itinerant researcher on the lower mainland; and on the home-front, to Kenny, and our daughters Ariel and Taliya, for all being so understand-ing regarding my ‘work-obsessions’, and to my Mom, Mari, for keeping the home fires stoked while here from Norway for five weeks at the

Fariba Mirzaie, Dance with Me, 2006Mixed media on hardboard, 44.5cm X 123cm

height of the academic semester augmented by curatorial marathons.

And above all, I thank each and every one of the artists who, since we first met, whether four years ago or three months ago, have taught me and shared with me and delighted me in myriad ways and whose work I am delighted to present to you, honoured members of the public.

Dr. Astri Wright Curator

Farukh Khedri, Bismillah, 2004Cut plywood on velvet on board, 55cm X 60cm

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The genius is someone who knows how to make everybody/the whole world a becoming.

~ Deleuze & Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus:

Capitalism and Schizophrenia, 1987

...but let’s not forget that it’s often more about mid-wifing and inspiring, or about joining hands in a circle dance, than being the single genius instigator of everybody else’s ‘becoming’ …

~ Astri Wright, typing on her computer, 2006

horizons. Through all of this, mean-ingful encounters with people ~ and our exchange of ideas and experiences ~ have been the core passion, which is why I resonate with the following line from Paulo Freire: “Education ... is not the transference of knowledge, but the encounter of Subjects in dialogue in search of the significance of the object of knowing and thinking.”

Being a university teacher of South and Southeast Asian art history and cultures demands that I teach the region’s four most common religious traditions in a mixture of generic form and specific case-studies: Indigenous/Primary religion, Hindu-ism, Buddhism, and Islam. What becomes clear, in so doing, and from this brief enumeration of these old, complex traditions (made all the more diverse through processes of cultural adaptation and syncretism), is that South and South-East Asia are top contenders for the position of “most culturally diverse” regions in the world.

I did not grow up in a Muslim-major-ity setting nor choose it as my reli-gion as an adult (nor am I a Chris-tian, Buddhist or any other form of organized-religion person). Were I to be asked to die for any faith, it would have to be for a not-name-bound deep humanism enacted within the framework (and in collaboration with) living, breathing nature and a spiritually resonant universe. Thus, I approach this topic with the eyes and senses of a traveller journeying through new lands ~ as an outsider on the move, beholden to no one par-ticular group or institution ~ a new kind of nomad, perhaps.

This does not mean that I have no particular socio-historical loyalties. My loyalties are tied to the task of combating the ignorance that fuel crusades undertaken by followers of any religious, political or theoretical position that targets groups or indi-viduals, in particular those within my realm of experience.

The word “Islam” and the fact of having been born a Muslim today, at certain times and in certain places,

S e e k e r , S e n t r y , S a g e : A C u r a t o r i a l I n t r o d u c t i o n

Sherazad Jamal, Twin Spirits.1 2002Cloth, canvas, paint, flower petalsInstallation 3.65m X 3.65m

trigger insidious hate-crimes, both veiled and overt (racism, sexism, and violence, both institutionalized and spontaneous at the personal level). This didn’t begin with 9-11, 2001, but these events certainly escalated and sharpened the trend.2 I don’t need to go into the details;3 they surround us everywhere.

This exhibition has come about as a result of the meandering journeys of many diverse people. Glimpses of the artists’ journeys can be found above all in their art work and also in the artist pages and essays, which constitute the bulk of this catalog.

A Curator’s Positioning and IslamFor me, these journeys began with the rhythm of travel implanted in my body and psyche during the first years of life, when my parents (hail-ing from three continents and two different language groups) dragged me around the world twice before I was five. No wonder, then, that my own self-propelled journeys went to China, Southeast Asia, and then India (unaware till much later, re-tracing pathways of the Silk Road), all the while weaving back and forth between my family-oases in Norway, the United States and Australia. Thus travel and education, meeting people across gaps of unknowing, has been like right and left foot to me, which ~ when working togeth-er ~ propel one towards new

“Seeker, Sentry, Sage: Shades of Islam in Contemporary Art” features works by fifteen Canadian artists with roots or interests in Islamic cultures of South Asia and the Near East, some of them having come to their present location in British Columbia, Canada, via Europe, Af-rica, and the Caribbean. All the art in this exhibition reflects, to varying degrees, exposure to Islamic teach-ings, cultural expressions, or social norms and values. The artists also draw on ideas, materials and prac-tices generated in the trajectories leading up to, and onwards from, western modernism. The result is a kaleidoscoping of formal elements and ideas into a pregnant, multi-lay-ered, alternately veiling and reveal-ing hybrid art. Because of its insist-ence on the urgency and validity of meaning, and the absence of satire, irony, or world-weariness, this kind of art is a different thing than the self-conscious form-/intellect-games frequently seen in Euro-American post-modern art, which often ada-mantly rejects the possibility of con-sensual and community-enhancing communication. This art does not.

Amir Ali Alibhai, Blue Lotus 2, 2006Mixed-media on canvas, 20cm X 20cm

Farheen HaQ, Endless Tether, 2005Still from video

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Perhaps most insidious is the barely-challenged stereotypical identifica-tion of all Muslims/the whole Islamic world with the small percentage of the whole who adhere to violent crusades of their own. Think: of roughly 1.5 billion Muslims in the world today, how many are terror-ists? And how does this figure com-pare to the numbers of people living under occupation by foreign armies? Let alone the numbers of civilians in Canada or the U.S. versus the number of criminal intent or spon-taneously violent people in our/their communities? And think: how often throughout history and all around us, today, have human beings of any background, era, gender, race, ra-tionalized violence in the name of an

insights to the world: rather than staying in the cave with their dis-coveries, as it were, art is made, not only because an inner drive pushes the artist to, but also be-cause of the desire to communicate with others. This adds to the role of art-maker those of witness and/or teacher (both of these ‘profess’ to something). And in order to profess something, one has to first know it deeply and from many angles. In contrast to the often-quoted phrase by George Bernard Shaw ~“He who knows, does. He who doesn’t, teaches” (which of course was said tongue-in-cheek and aimed at a specific individual or two!), which today seems the motto in a society where the teacher is held in little respect by adults and children alike, the artists here come from or have embraced cultural models where the teacher is most highly respected, even venerated.

Along those lines, I would also describe each artist in this exhibi-tion as having some of the qualities of a sage (though every one of them would protest such a statement out

ideology of some sort? Statistics tell us that Christians constitute ca.30% of the world’s population; Muslims, ca.20%; some project that by 2025, Muslims will constitute 30% of the world, with Christians lagging be-hind at 25%.4

However accurate these figures are (figures rarely are), what they do tell us is that the two largest religions in the world today (whether practiced actively or passively), and each individual who statistically is said to belong to one or the other group, needs to find ways to ‘see’ and live harmoniously together rather than searching for reasons and occasions to violate the other.5

Searching, Guarding, Witnessing and TeachingThe artists in “Seeker, Sentry, Sage” have, unwittingly, in the course of our interactions (over the last 3 months to 4 years), inspired the shape of the title and framework of this exhibition. All of them are what I call ‘seekers,’ searching for answers to vitally urgent questions about the workings of and the rela-tions between the human species and the individual, nature and God. One question that fuels this search for answers is how one arrives at inner peace and then manifests it in the world.

Each artist is also, more metaphori-cally speaking, a sentry ~ someone who, in seeking, finds something of value to self and others, which was in danger of being lost (or was already lost but in the seeking, refound). And once found, often at great cost to the individual seeker’s health, home and happiness, s/he guards that treasure vigilantly.

Moreover, these kinds of artists feel called to ‘witness’ about their

violence that is the mark and effect of ignorance. In this exhibition, the term “sage” also connotes the cel-ebration of a certain sage, prophet (like Muhammad) or great teacher (like Rumi), or the sage teachings of a group of teachers throughout history (like the line of Imams who have formed the centre of Ismaili traditions).

Above and beneath these ideas, the notion of the artist as visionary shim-mers like a transparency that frames and focuses the messages of wisdom found in Islam and beyond.

Yasmin Pyarali Karim, My Mountain, 200435 mm frame from cameraless animation

of natural or cultivated humility). “Sage” seems an old-fashioned word in English and other European languages, something relegated to folk-tales, though recently (refresh-ingly) with the magic-trend in popu-lar culture, alive again in film. But many places in the world (and some sub-cultures among us right here) retain the idea of wisdom growing with age, with seeking, and with finding, even in the midst of thriving urban consumer-cultures.

Beyond the idea of the potential for experientially-acquired wisdom ~ within the reach of everyone who is searching ~ there is a category for that rare kind of person (rare but recognized and celebrated in the South Asian and Near Eastern traditions which echo throughout this exhibition) recognized in the community for his or her wisdom, sometimes even visionary abilities, often combined with healing pow-ers. Such a sage is someone who can be a still point in the hurricane of society’s blind, harried hurry, or someone who can lead their commu-nity forward through the chaos and

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The Exhibition as Participatory Theatre

An exhibition, once installed and open to the public, is cousin to a play. As with the audience at a play (but perhaps even more so), each exhibition-viewer, in the act of walking through the space where the art is staged, becomes part of the performance. They may be silent and internalized, but the responses

Astri Wright in Bukhara, 1999Photo: a Friendly Passer-By

(verbal, nonverbal) to the works of art, become part of the script. This active scripting of the performance continues for as long as the exhibi-tion is ‘up’ and hopefully beyond. To be the most co-creative kind of audience here, if you haven’t already walked through the gallery (or browsed through the pictures in this catalogue), put this catalog down right now (or continue leaf-ing through it, just looking, without reading any text). See, first, with your own eyes; open up all your fac-ulties of mind and senses ~ you are the intended recipient of the visual gifts of the artists, presented in the real-space of the exhibition, and the virtual-space of the catalog.

Curating is itself a creative act, which, just like art made by artists with a philosophical bent (such as the art presented here) is based on and grows out of a mind fertilized by research, imagining, drafting, scrapping, redrafting, and refram-ing, before letting the ‘baby’ go on its own feet out into the world. Con-ception stems from intimate interac-tion; once out in the world, a baby’s

growth only happens through the give and take of relationships, and dialogue. This, then, is an invitation to active dialogue.

*

I have learned from every artist in this exhibition, in shared mirth, joy, sadness, stories, and, above all, in the charged field of ideas co-min-gling in recognition and discovery. The framing of each specific in-stance of ideas and aesthetics as well as of the physical art works are the artists’; the framing of the show as a whole is mine. For any mistakes or misrepresentations, I would ask, as I learned from my Muslim friends in Indonesia:

Minta Ma’af, Lahir dan Batin.

(“Forgive me for all misdeeds and transgressions, both perceptible/

manifest and not.”)


S h a d e s o f I s l a m i n C o n t e m p o r a r y A r t : A r t / H i s t o r i c a l R e f l e c t i o n s

He who jumps into the void owes no ex-planation to those who stand and watch.

~ Jean Luc Goddard

“Seeker, Sentry, Sage”6 introduces to the art-involved public one of the least known segments of the multi-cultural palette of Canadian artists.7 One primary aim with this exhibition is to present a cross-sec-tion of emerging artists (and most of these artists can be called ‘emerg-ing’ here, though several were well-established in their homelands before having to leave) working in our midst whose work deserves a greater public presence, in Canada and beyond. Another goal is to raise awareness of some of the many nu-ances (cultural and religious, social and personal) often referenced (and simplified, stereotyped, and again recently demonized) as ‘Muslim.’ None of these fifteen artists or their art belongs only in Islamic, Muslim, or Muslim-Canadian categories and frameworks; hence I do not use the term ‘Islamic art’ here. At the same time, all of these artists are by his-tory and/or choice linked to Islam in their lives and work, though the shape and depth of each of these links differ from one to the other. All references to ‘Islam’ here are

used in an inclusive, cross-cultural and transnational sense, with no more distinction made between schools, branches, theological em-phases and disputes than simple use of the term “Christian”. Aside from its reference to religious traditions and practices, the word is also used about cultural spheres: the cultures that exist under the various influ-ences of Islam.8

British Columbia today is a micro-cosm of the world. Yet this fact is not always evident to all. Most go through their days according to pre-set paths, cruising on habit-con-trol. European (and European-an-cestry) newcomers to the province see mainly its lack of crowding and natural environment. In primary and secondary schools, history-teach-ing centres around the events of European settlers, traders and the developing colonial institution, with occasional nods to encounters with indigenous peoples. In the last few years, some attention is also given to Chinese and Indian immigrants, groups which already have long histories of immigration to Canada.9 But more recently arrived groups have far less visibility, and fewer voices from within their groups are

heard by the general public. Still, with its commitment to multi-cultur-alism, flawed as the practice some-times is, Canada often proves more responsive than other European(-colonized) nations to the wishes of their sub- and minority-cultures.10

A few weeks ago, Jabbar says with some excitement: “Did you know we now have half an hour of TV every day? In Arabic?” I had just come from Riyadh’s’ studio, where he told me he was going to be on TV both the next day and the following week. Rozita’s mother tells me that the Persian program she watches on TV is out of Seattle, there isn’t one on Canadian TV.

Riyadh Hashim, Union, 2006Acrylic on Paper, 39.5cm X 39.5cm

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In the always shifting kaleidoscope of a plural society (shifting as people come and go, shifting as the viewer’s or researcher’s eyes move from one situation to focus on another), proc-esses of syncretism11 or métissage12 become the common denominator, describing an ability (hard to com-prehend for people from ethnically, religiously, culturally homogeneous backgrounds) to tolerate, participate in, synthesize and reproduce diversity.

With family roots and histories that spin threads between India, Afghan-istan, Pakistan, Iraq, Syria, Iran, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, England and Canada, some of the artists are descended from families who arrived in Canada generations ago, others arrived a few decades ago;

The third reason is, besides cel-ebrating the art (all of which can stand on its own without any labels or textual circumscribing), to dem-onstrate something to a non-Muslim public. And that is the following: how, on the one hand, there is at the level of ideal/ist discourse in Islam a great and beautiful invitation to unity among and absolute equality between all people, whatever their class, gender, race, history, and per-sonal abilities. And this ideal has at times found root in practice through-out history and certainly finds a home in many Muslims hearts and beyond. This idea/l is in evidence throughout this exhibition.

A variegated picture of Muslim soci-ety is true across the Muslim world; it is particularly the case in Canada today and has been, in other eras and areas throughout history.14 One of life’s major tensions, among all peoples of all times, lies in the vibrating, bargaining conversation (sometimes destructive, sometimes fruitful) between the ideal and the real, between text and behaviour, idea and practice. Without the ideal or creative idea about poten-tial, we stay stuck in ego-centered, insider-/outsider-group behaviour.

But without also having a detailed understanding and acceptance of the real ~ of the way things are, the way people are ~ the ideal easily becomes fanaticism. Every historical era and each of the major religions and ideologies (including but not specific to Islam) has had (and some are currently having) its heyday of demonstrating that principle.15

There is a fourth reason as well, or rather a wish, behind curating this exhibition. That is the hope that it may bring a few people (artists and audiences) of Muslim backgrounds some measure of pride and joy to see some aspects of their cultures’ and/or religion’s contemporary visual production displayed and cel-ebrated. This wish is coupled with the hope that the exhibition will also stimulate to discussion and critique – about framings, about art, about more inclusive imag[in]ings of Cana-dian society, about Islam, and Mus-lim cultural and religious diversity. This, then, is an invitation to revel in a small sampling of the beauty and variety rooted in and around Islam as found in this particular part of the world and to broaden the social discourse around Islam in British Columbia and beyond.16

Muslim/World Echoes

If (as I suggested in the introduc-tion) an exhibition is like a play, the cast should be billed right after the title. Hence, before addressing inter-artist connections and framing metaphors chosen for the presenta-tion of this exhibition, let me (Ladies and Gentlemen), introduce the art-ists in alphabetical order:

Amir Ali Alibhai, Tanya Evanson, Farheen HaQ, Riyadh Hashim, Shera-zad Jamal, Jabbar Al Janabi, Yasmin Pyarali Karim, Farukh Khedri, Farida Mawji, Fariba Mirzaie, Rozita Moini-Shirazi, Pari Azarm Motamedi, Leslie Stanick, Sharifa Donna Webb, and Najat Zakhour.

Sherazad Jamal, Solar Eclipse ~ Chakra 2, 2004Acrylic on canvas (detail), 84cm X 61cm

yet others have been here less than ten years. As a group, they can be seen as representing a slice of the Silk Road. The Silk Road (and by extension what I call the Silk Seas) refers to a specific set of events in history occurring along land (and sea) routes connecting Europe, the Near East, Central and East Asia, conventionally dated from around the 1st C. BCE to the 11th-12th centuries. But trade routes existed millennia before this, as connec-tions between the Near East and the Indus Valley indicate. And as we know, international trade has only grown more global and more con-trolled by an ever-smaller number of gigantic conglomerates. In this essay, I use the term Silk Road also as a metaphor for journeying and learning between `east’ and `west’. This exhibition shows some of these processes transplanted to Canada’s West Coast.13

Simple labels simplify and flatten ideas: each of the artists here has a distinct description of their rela-tionship to specific traditions within Islam, yet the tie is there and should not be ignored or censored out of the bouquet of relevant perspec-

tives. Some, who desire clear focus-ing principles, may ask: if it’s not simple, why, then, are these artists in this exhibition together? I have three main reasons.

The first is quite [yes] simple: the social fabric which holds and sur-rounds us all is no longer as homog-enous as it once seemed. While it is far the richer for its diversity, it is not a given that any single individual or group understands much about other groups. In particular this is true of Anglo/UK-Canadians, many of whom have become complacent from being the majority ruling group over a few centuries.

The second is that, in researching over the last four years who might be artists of Muslim background and/or persuasion in Western Canada, these artists came into focus. As I became familiar with them and their work, I saw how their individual art works speak not only outward, to the viewer, but also to and among other works of the group as a whole (though they mainly exist[ed] as a group in my mind), creating a rich net of links, challenges, echoes, and responses.

Yasmin Pyarali Karim, Tajalli (Dedicated to my teacher Prof. Dr. Allamah Nasir Hunzai), 2006. Digital Image

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Fifteen artists. Four men, eleven women. Five grew up speaking English from early childhood, one French, three Arabic, and four Farsi; several spoke/speak Gujarati and Swahili. Twelve of them heard Arabic as the sacred language of the Qur’an growing up. At least six of them are bi-lingual, at least two are tri-lingual, one speaks five languag-es.17 Ten of them paint, but only two limit themselves to that medium, and only at this current stage in their lives. All of them have multi-ple frames of references regarding origin, belonging, self and commu-nity. Each of them (whether self-taught, trained in art school or in the one-on-one master-to-student/older family member-to-younger family member model) has an impassioned art practice. And all of them are highly, globally mobile.18

What, then, are some of the shades of Islam referred to in the exhi-bition’s title?19 Even the briefest glimpse at each artist, his or her background, and what their con-cerns are in their art, paints a land-scape with diverse echoes of Islam.

Two of the artists ~ Jabbar al Jana-bi and Riyadh Hashim ~ are first generation exiles from Iraq who ar-rived in Canada within the last dec-ade. Growing up, they were exposed to both Shia and Sunni Islam (and numerous variations within each) as well as secular systems of ideas and cultural expressions within a thriv-ing art context.20 As modern artists, they tend towards secular mind/heart formulations of the world, but each nurtures a fervent faith in some kind of larger-than-material-plane reality. For al Janabi, it is a creative intelligence he finds a name for in ancient history; for Hashim it is Art.

Jabbar al Janabi paints in oil and acrylics but sees his more important work in community-building through collaborative, multi-media, improvisa-tional events, where he brings together a microcosm of people and histories. Yet what connects his directing with his painting is his identification with the bringer/creator of light. As a director, he determines when which spotlight will split the unified mass of darkness and reveal form and movement; as a painter, the last year has seen him working completely non-figuratively with colours and textures like molten lava or what the surface of the sun itself might be like.

immigrants from Iran, having left Iran after the 1978-79 revolution and the 1980-1987 Iran-Iraq war made pursuit of lives and profes-sions too difficult. Pari Azarm Motamedi, formerly a successful architect and city planner in Iran, turned to art after moving to Canada twenty-two years ago. Apart from painting, she has worked with pre-cious metals and gem-stones, creat-ing stunning board games where the playing-pieces are wearable jewelry, one of which (with pieces made of 24 karat gold and diamond capping plexiglass) won a national award.21 Rozita Moini-Shirazi (with degrees from both Canada and Iran) works in photo-montage and multimedia, often combining historical photos (cities, war-reportage) and images of her own eyes and sometimes hands in many pieces. Fariba Mirzaie is a fashion designer who creates art-clothes as well as multimedia art; in both media, she combines organic, natural materials with cloth and paint in unique ways, pushing her fashion towards moving sculpture and her wall pieces towards a mar-riage of textiles and painting.

Farheen HaQ, a 2nd generation woman of Pakistani family back-ground, is a video & photography artist who explores her body as site of identity as a woman, a Muslim and a Canadian. Of all the visual artists in this exhibition, hers is the work that most appeals to the theo-ry-driven part of the contemporary art world, which (while fascinating in its own right) all too easily, pushed by the self-devouring desire for “only the new,” dominates high-vis-ibility presentations of contemporary art in the west.22

Five of the artists in this exhibi-tion are Ismaili-Muslims with roots in South Asia. Ismailism is a sub-branch to Shia Islam; its followers are led, spiritually and socio-politi-cally (like Tibetan Buddhists by the Dalai Lama) by the Aga Khan.23 Amir Ali Alibhai, Sherazad Jamal, and Yasmin Pyarali Karim are 2nd generation Canadians with family roots in South Asia via Africa, now living in Vancouver.

Alibhai is a painter and multi-media installation artist. Over the last years, he has been inspired by the Indian rangoli tradition. Rangoli, also called kolam and a host of other names in various

Indian languages, are women’s ritual art, with diagrams evoking harmony and balance and blessings, painted on walls and on the ground both daily and for specific occasions. Alibhai has adapted the technique to working with different communities in and around Vancouver, including First Nations artists, working with objects found in the natural land- and urban-scape.

Jamal does oil and other painting as well as multimedia installation which in themselves are meants as mark-ers of her psycho-spiritual process of inquiry. Karim does experimental film animation, painting each single 35 mm film-frame which runs at 24 frames a minute; she also does computer graphic art and acrylic and multimedia painting. Her abid-ing inspiration is the intersection between Islamic philosophy/science and quantum theory.

Farida Mawji’s family trajectory is similar to the last three, though some of the details vary: born in Zanzibar to Indian parents from Gujarat, she is a ceramic artist and print maker, whose work among many other things evokes Islamic architecture and personal his-tory. Farukh Khedri is a 1st genera-tion Canadian from Afghanistan

May 2003: Jabbar Al Janabi (seated, cen-tre) with a community of Near Eastern and Eastern European artists brought together at the shortlived Artpars gallery in North Vancouver by Darab (right), Najat Zakhour seated on the left.

Riyadh Hashim is a prolific abstraction-ist who works mainly in oil and acrylics, where landscapes, cityscapes, and the human figure are overwritten, coloured and [re]shaped by historical events. In the last six months, a new element has entered into his work. Where before his canvases usually hosted a single ab-stracted figure, often a woman, he has recently painted several images of a man and a woman, expanding the human element to evoke a social, even intimate, less angst- or solitude-filled world.

Three of the artists based (mainly) in Vancouver are first-generation

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In ancient Sumer, Anu was known as the Sky God, who inhabits the realm above the horizon, a being who is multiple in characteristics, indeed boundary-less. Anu is part of the cosmic order, represent-ative of the circle of ALL, lord/lady of all potential. While Al Janabi is trained as a painter and still paints, as seen in this show, he dismisses most static art as irrelevant, void of the true potential of Art. “When I paint it is a meditation; the results are furniture.”24

via Kazakhstan, now living in Victo-ria; he carves and cuts Moucharabya calligraphy out of thin wood veneers. He represents the most traditional form of artist-training in this exhibi-tion and thus a type of artist rarely included in contemporary art exhibi-tions here.

Three of the artists are Canadians with no family connections to the Near East or to Islam; they have embraced Sufi practice as adults. Tanya Evanson (of Anglo- and Afro-Caribbean-Canadian heritage who grew up in Montreal, moved to Van-couver and now lives in Turkey) is a word-, sound-, life-poet, who over the last few years has become an accomplished (centered in turning beauty) dervish. Leslie Stanick and Sharifa Donna Webb are Canadians of various European background (both sides of their families here for generations) who are both practic-ing Sufis. Stanick works with paint, photography, and multi-media both as an individual artist and as an art educator. Webb is a papermaker, painter, and printmaker. Both artists’ work is poetically and philosophically inspired by Rumi, whose words run like a purple thread through many parts of this exhibition.

Najat Zakhour grew up as a mem-ber of a minority-group in a mostly Muslim nation. A first generation Canadian of Syrian-Christian back-ground, she is Arab, speaks Arabic, and thus has direct access to the linguistically embedded Islamic references rife in general Syrian discourse. Zakhour is an oil painter, weaver, former teacher and Chair of the art department at the Al Baath University in Homs, Syria.

Najat Zakhour, growing up in a Christian Orthodox family in Syria, estimates the country to be about 85% Muslim. “And my art has indeed been inspired by Islamic art, in colours, in decorative patterns, in the forms,” Najat says.

Al Janabi, Hashim and Zakhour, along with Rozita Moini-Shirazi from Iran, choose more secular philosophical themes and motifs in their art, focusing on intersections between self, history and the scripting of current spaces.

Both Zakhour and Al Janabi have been inspired by ancient history. One of Zakhour’s early forms of work, for which she became well-known in Syria at a time when no one was doing modern weaving art, is “Assyrian Piper.”

For the last six years, Al Janabi has gathered and directed artists of many media together for multi-media impro-vised evenings of artistic solos and cross-media conversations.

The choice of ‘Anu’ for the title of these annual events reflects Al Janabi’s inter-est in the iconography and mythology embedded in the ancient ruins from the earliest urban civilizations we know, which dot the landscape of his now once again war-ravaged homeland.

Framing MetaphorsEvery presentation or performance, whatever the media, has been fitted into a frame. Ideally, the frame is chosen according to the cues in the material researched for presenta-tion, but every frame always, to some degree, shapes the meanings conveyed. The form of an exhibi-tion depends on the spatial arrange-ment, what objects are arranged and how, and on the pathways indicated through the space and between and before the objects.

Two linked and overlapping meta-phors (or theoretical frameworks in visual form, if you will) underpin and overlay this exhibition. Imagine them as you walk through the exhi-bition or leaf through this catalog, like transparencies that frame the view and inform, enrich, [y]our vision: a rosary and a hand-woven textile.

A rosary25 is a string of (nearly but not quite) identical beads tied togeth-er to form a loop, like a necklace, usually with the first and last bead separated by a tassel of string-ends. Rosaries are found throughout the Hindu/Jewish, Buddhist, Christian,

and Muslim worlds. Both rosaries and textiles are made up of repeated shapes organized in a certain pat-tern. This pattern (some of its parts unique, some of them repetitious) is significant to the kind of reality or phenomena sought described by invoking the metaphor.

A rosary and a textile each and both symbolize the individual parts that constitute a whole, according to a model in which (when looking at the parts), the form of each echoes that of the whole. When looking at the whole, the sum of all the similiarly shaped parts, strung together into a circle (or woven together into a cloth), symbolize the [re]integration of a world of fragments… if only for a string of moments. But both the individualized/fragmented side and the unified/collective side to experience are true, sometimes simultaneously, and sometimes by turn.26 See how, with the use of these metaphors, the artists and art work in “Seeker, Sentry, Sage” all fit together, differences and all, like a rosary and like a hand-woven textile. But don’t stop here: see how they look, when you abandon these frames and try on others.

“ANU - IV” Three nights of Multimedia Col-laborative Improvisations, directed by Jabbar Al Janabi, Vancouver, The Round-house Community Centre, July 2005

Najat Zakhour, Assyrian Piper, ca. 1990Hooked, woven wool, 120cm X 90cm

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Contemplat ions in the GardenSpiritual wonder and questioning began for me in the Persian gar-dens of my childhood. Nature, like a gentle teacher, opened my eyes to beauty and order, the rhythm of seasons, the force of birth and the inevitable process of decay and rebirth.

The experience of living is the experience of joy and pain together, the pain sometimes bringing us face to face with the depth of unbearable grief and fundamental questions about existence and purpose. In such times again nature has been a means of looking beyond my own small world towards the magnifi-cent and mysterious universe and beyond with awe and surrender...In nature I see, everywhere, written in a universal language, the name of the omnipotent, omnipresent, artist, scientist, creator and healer, to whom we have given different names, at different times and in dif-ferent places…a fundamental sacred connection, in essence perhaps the same for all, but different names…

Deep inside the heart there is light, the color of the vast cloudless sky and the turquoise blue ponds of

my childhood memories. In rare moments of clarity, it is possible to touch something beyond experience, a connection not through any rec-ognizable speech, but in the quiet, quivering language of the heart…timeless moments when I somehow deeply recognize the magnificence of existence and my place in it. In these moments there is serenity, sur-render, gratitude, detachment, love and acceptance as if I am part of a whole in which mutual caring and tenderness for all and everything is the only rule. The duration meas-ured with our units of time is insig-nificant…the healing is immense and long lasting.

Then there is the chaos of the noise outside. We repeat the same name everywhere and in every language. But it is not the same. There is pain and suffering of thousands of years intertwined, sometimes, with ephem-eral joy but also with impatience, ignorance, prejudice, greed and all our personalities. It is the call of the ego, not the quiet wisdom of the connected spirit. It loses its purity. It enters the domain of politics and of economy. It can become a tool

of oppression and separation…the same name, a different meaning, layers and layers of hurting and be-ing hurt.

Do we have the tools necessary for the understanding and healing of the chaos? Do we have the patience, the caring and the respect to look for the tools as if our lives depended on it? Do we choose to devote what ever it takes to find a way out, into the realm of life, love, peace, seren-ity, art and beauty for all? Or do we choose the route of fear, of misun-derstanding, of fast violent remedies that have seldom worked anywhere?

If we care enough to look closely there is a piece of the serene, blue pond in each one of us living togeth-er inside this chaos…It is sometimes buried in the depth of misery and ignorance but still there. When there is the will, there will be a way to see the Light in all and to search for sensitive and caring solutions rather than jumping into the midst of the multi layered chaos with our fast fix violent remedies.

Pari Azarm Motamedi Artist

Parting Words for NowThe artworks presented in “Seeker, Sentry, Sage” are signposts of a search not only for meaning, but for a path ~ for answers and insights ~ through veils of uprooting and estrangement, and through tensions between social and physical self and soul, between past and present places and positions. The paths life has offered the artists, within which they have made their choices, have at certain junctures led to breaks with the past and the familiar, and the absence of loved ones. This has caused mobility of body and fragmentation of mind, with periods of grief at losses both lasting and concrete and both less-tangible and evanescent.27 These are some of the situations of the human condi-tion when art making can become a path of survival as well as of wit-nessing, teaching, and enriching, to artist and audience alike. “There is plenty of grief in the human spe-cies today and plenty of soul-loss. For where creativity is lost soul is lost.”28 These artists could not but embrace their creativity, to all of our enrichment. But the problem for many artists recently arrived in

Canada, and for artists belonging to groups for political and other rea-sons rendered less-/in-visible, is to find an audience.

The word ‘curate’ comes from the Latin ‘cura,’ meaning ‘to care,’ often applied to the care and cure of souls.29 In that light, to curate or not to curate ~ that is the ques-tion. Let us then continue to curate, to uncover works of art of both aesthetic and narrative importance and eloquence for greater conscien-tization and global awareness. The way academics and curators make their/our choices allows us to tap

into our own creativity and sense of responsibility in ways that need to be much further explored.

Rollo May calls the courage to create “the most important kind of courage of all.”30 He elaborates: ‘Whereas moral courage is the fight-ing of wrongs, creative courage, in contrast, is the discovering of new forms, new symbols, new patterns on which a new society can be built.”


Pari Azarm Motamedi, Garden of Light, 2006Watercolour and 24 karat gold on paper, 54.5cm X 104cm

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D r a w i n g f r o m t h e h e a r t o f R u m i : T o w a r d s a p e d a g o g y o f t h e a w a k e n i n g h e a r t

This essay is based on excerpts from a longer illustrated paper entitled Drawing from the Heart of Rumi: Art as spiritual inquiry. Weaving four strands of inquiry, my paper considers: 1) A theoreti-cal framework for the integration of spirituality in education through poetry and art; 2) The life and teachings of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi as a model for contemporary educators, as we develop paths for spiritual exploration and nourish-ment for students and teachers; 3) Readings of Rumi’s poems, which invite deep contemplation and in-ner inquiry; and 4) Presentation of my artwork as an example of arts-based spiritual inquiry inspired by Rumi’s poetry and my practices as a member of a contemporary Sufi learning community.

This research contributes to current dialogues on the integration of spir-ituality in education, by offering an example of a ‘pedagogy of the awak-ening heart,’ an arts-based spiritual inquiry informed by poetic spiritual text, silence and the inner search.

Art as a path of self inquiry, com-bined with the evocative mystical

poetry of Jalaluddin Rumi, provides a powerful process and medium for introducing and integrating spirituality in education. The life and teachings of this enlightened Sufi master, from 13th century Persia, offer a radical invitation to know the self: a pedagogy of gnosis and transformation, fueled

by the fires of love, and embodied through creative expression.2

Rumi’s poems still the mind, attune the heart, and invite the listener into deep contemplation, providing meaning and direction to the inner search for wholeness and awaken-ing. We are urged to seek that which has been secreted deep within our own hearts ~ a hidden treasure which is priceless beyond measure

Mediating between spirit and form, artistic response embodies the search, giving visual expression to the ineffable, creating an “exter-nalized map of our interior self.”3 Produced as part of my Masters research and exhibition, Illumina-tions is a series of ‘light paintings’ inspired by Sufi metaphors for the process of awakening ~ removing the veils of the heart to reveal the light within. The site of my inquiry became my life, and the soft, inti-mate folds of my own heart. These inner portraits are offered as exam-ples of renderings of the nuances of a human heart in the process of unfolding. Rumi’s poetry and Sufi spiritual practices, mindful inquiry, a/r/tography,4 and the study of art

Leslie Stanick, Entering the Cave of the Heart, 2004, Digital photo of cloth collageA step towards your own heart is a step towards the beloved…

~ Rumi1

therapy as a way of knowing, con-tinue to inform and transform my practice as an artist, researcher, teacher and spiritual aspirant.

Over 750 years ago, Rumi’s life and teachings provided guidance for spiritual awakening and daily living, supported by people gathered in learning communities who worked together for the benefit and uplift-ment of the whole. His life and work continue to inspire and instruct,

Leslie Stanick, Qalb ~ Inner Heart, 2004Digital photo of cloth collageWait till you look within yourself And see what is there. O seeker, One leaf from that Garden Is worth more than all of paradise.

~Rumi

1 Star, Jonathan, & Shiva, Shahram (1992). A garden of paradise. New York: Bantam Books, p.88. The next Rumi poem cited is from p.vii. Rumi was born in Balkh, in to-day’s Afghanistan. He devoted his life to the study of Persian and Islamic culture and his enormous body of work is written in Persian, in recent years available in translation in many languages.

2 Barks, Coleman, & Green, Michael (2000). The Illuminated prayer: The five-times prayer of the Sufis. New York: Ballantine Books.

3 London, Peter (1989). No more second hand art: Awakening the artist within. Boston: Shambala, p.34.

4 ‘a/r/tography’ refers to the work of Irwin & de Cosson, see: Irwin, R., L. & de Cosson, Alex F. (Eds.). (2004). A/r/tography: Render-ing self through arts-based living inquiry. Vancouver, BC: Pacific Educational Press.

offering contemporary educators a model for integrating spiritual principles and practices in education through inner contemplation and arts-based experiential learning. Ru-mi’s message of love and compas-sion, inclusiveness, and honouring of the unity of humanity are urgently needed in today’s troubled world. As a society separated from the sa-cred, we are outwardly focused and out of touch with our inner selves; we need to turn our gaze inwards to know who we are; we need silence and rest for the heart and mind:

Rumi’s poetry and art can provide that refuge. His poetry offered meaningful avenues of inquiry and fruitful creative openings for my art students in community college and studio settings, an approach which can be applied in other educational and public domains, including pro-fessional development programs for teachers and teacher educators.

Leslie Stanick, MEd Artist

UNESCO has declared 2007 the year of Rumi, the 800th anniversary of Rumi’s birth, to honour one of the greatest humanitarians, spiritual luminaries and poets of all time.

Leslie Stanick, Melting in Ashk, 2004Digital photoWhy not become fresh from the gentleness of the heart-spring? Why not laugh like a rose? Why not spread perfune?

~Rumi

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Introduction

This is part of the research I do to understand Islamic teachings and the laws of nature that explain life, the cosmos and God’s will. This research expands my visual language, offers new ideas and informs my art. It ex-plains in words the subtlety of my visuals, animated films, and paintings.

The Importance of Pairs

1. Concept of Creation. 2. Creation is constant and perpetual neither a beginning nor end. 3. Principle of Opposites. “Opposites create perfection from each other.” Prof.Dr.ANH 4. Principle of Pairs. Example of the pair of: intellect + soul = “Zawjayn” Hudd 11:40 5. Each pair together makes a circle.

Ark of Knowledge

The emphasis on pairs echoes throughout the Sacred Teachings. It is the pair that completes the circle.

Hazrat Nuh by the command of God attained one spiritual pair from each of the five hudud who were with the Imam of the time, and kept them in the ark of knowledge. The Ark of Nuh 23:27

Are Our Internal Senses Frozen?

Just as physically we use our 5 senses to learn and actualize our potential, so too our inner faculties help us know who we are. Hudud-i Din are the Internal Senses.

“He it is who created for you ears, eyes, hearts i.e. Natiq, Asas and the Imam, but little it is that you give thanks for”

~ Sura Mūminūn 23:78

God says: “We raise in ranks whom We please; and over every possessor of knowledge is a possessor of knowledge”

~ The Qur’an, Yusuf (Joseph) 12:76

H u d ū d - i D ī n Research Notes for a new series Symbolism within Abstractism

“Load therein two from every pair and your family”

~ The Qur’an, Hudd 11:40

“Do you think you are a small body; while the great cosmos is contained in you?”

~ Mawla Ali

Always Becoming!

Zero by itself shows no quantity, yet in order of numbers it comes first. Zero is the symbol of non-being in Qur’anic symbolism. Non-being means ibda, because it is free from everything and beyond comprehension, but by the will of the word “Be (kun)” its manifestations continue to take place. How zero stands for non-being or ibda is seen in verse Baqara 2:28.

One is the symbol of the unity, after which comes two with the law of dual-ity. God has created everything in pairs without any exception. Three sym-bolises three forms of existence: intellectual, spiritual, physical. Number three in the spiritual world symbolizes three highest ranks: the Divine Word, the Universal Intellect and the Universal Soul. In the physical world also there are three highest ranks: Natiq, Asas and Imam. The importance of five is seen in the five external and internal senses. In my investigation of the Hudud-i Din number five represents the wasilah (means). As the Holy Prophet says: “Between me and my Lord there are five intermediar-ies: Jibrīl, Mikā’īl, Isrāfīl, the Tablet and the Pen.”

The Five Hudud

1. The hadd or oneness of hudud is Universal Command. Universal Command = amr - kull = kalimah-i bari. Divine word is known as amr-i kun, wahadat is oneness, bihist-i haqiqi, real paradise, maad = return, from the Universal Command Allah brought into existence Universal Intellect which instantly joined and become one. The Workshop of Univer-sal Command is the human will. 2. The hadd of justice or equity is Universal Intellect. 3. The hadd of creation or composition is Universal Soul. 4. The hadd of compilation is Natiq. 5. The hadd of tawil is Asas.

“When the light of the Imam of the time shone on my soul, I become the bright sun, though previously I was pitch dark night.”

~ Pir Nasir-i Khusraw

“You were lifeless, then He brought you to life.”

~ The Qur’an, Baqara 2:28

MONOREALITYFIVE HUDD IN ONE

Universal SoulUn ive r sa l In te l le

ctU n i v e r s a l C o m m a n d

Na t i qA s a s

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The things related to Intellect and the things related to Soul become pairs. Things related to Intellect = natiq are male and the things related to Soul = asas are female and they become pairs among themselves. intellect + soul = “zawjayn” natiq male + asas female = “ithnayn” All souls which are merged with the Universal Command become one, their existence become one. Hazrat Nuh achieved this reality of gratitude.

Hudud-i Din are Roots and Branches of the Tree of ReligionShajarah-i Tayyibah is the Pure and Holy Tree, that is the chain of Imamat which is the mazhar place of manifestation of the Universal Intellect. The root of this tree is the exalted personality of the Holy Prophet which is firm in the ground of religion. The branch is the Holy Light of the Imam of the time which functions as the Pearl of Intellect at the height of the heaven of spirituality and it yields fruit all the time by the permission of God.

Relationship of Hudud-i Din with the Personal world

Personal World is the internal individual school of macrifat. One should strive hard to actualize the individual personal world in order to recognize oneself, ones Lord and the Hudud-i din. In sura Naml 27:93 Allah says:

“And say: the Hamd-praise belongs to Allah. Soon he will show you His signs-ayats and you will recognize them.”

In this blessed verse by signs are meant the Hudud-i din and the Hamd is the name of Universal Intellect. It is because of this that the personal world and Hudud-i din are discussed together. A ta’wili secret in this connec-tion is discovered in sura Al-i-Imran verse 3:37. Here the extremely useful secret mentioned is in “Zakariyya-Mihraaba”. The subtle body is mihrab = spiritual fortress = personal world. Whenever Hazrat Zakariyya entered the mihrab or the personal world of Hazrat Maryam and shed the light

USŪL AND FURŪ OF RELIGIONUSUL = ROOTS singular asl

FURU = BRANCHES singular far

IMAM JADD

HUJJAT FATH

DA’I KHAYAL

Physical AspectMANIFEST

Spiritual AspectHIDDEN

6 furu branches

4 usul roots

ASĀS

NĀ

TIQ

NA

FS -I KULL

‘AKL -I KULL

“Have you not seen how Allah has set forth a parable? A pure word is like a pure tree, whose root is firmly fixed and whose branch is in heaven. It always gives fruit by the permission of its Lord.”

~ Ali Allah in sura Ibrahim 14:24

of knowledge of Imamat in the form of questions and answers, Hazrat Maryam used to reflect from her heart in an extraordinary manner. She is the example of every hujjat, and therefore here the secret we come to know is HOW the exalted Imam, in his luminous attire, enters the maharib or the personal world of his hujjats.

Example of Hudud-i Din in the Physical World

Recognition of God and the Hudud-i Din is possible only in the personal world. See sura Naml 27:93; here His ayats = signs are the Hudud-i Din. Obvious examples are the sun, moon and the stars. Every Natiq in his own time is like the sun of the world of religion, Asas is like the moon and the huhud are under them like stars. After Natiq, Asas is the sun and Imam of the time the moon; after Asas, Imam of the time is the sun and Bab is the moon. This is the unchangeable sunnat = law of God, sura Israa 17:77.

Understanding the relationships within the worlds, as described by Prof. Dr. Allamah Nasir Hunzai, includes the understanding of the Personal World as a Sacred Sanctuary.

Yasmin Pyarali Karim Artist

The author would like to acknowledge with gratitude her Teacher, Professor Allamah Nasir al-Din Nasir Hunzai, in whose book, Diagrams of Wisdom (1990), she found the line-drawn diagrams which she has reworked for this essay. Professor Hunzai, a prolific scholar and writer, is author of the Book of Healing, translated by Dr.Faquir Muhammad Hunzai and Rashida Noormo-hamed-Hunza (ISBN 1-903440-01-7). See http://www.monoreality.org/

Professor Hunzai has recently been nominated by the International Jury for the UNESCO Prize for Peace Education 2006.

Wo r l d o f D r e a m s

Wo r l d o f I m a g i n a t i o

n

W o r l d o f W a k e f u l n e s s

Wo

r l do f S p i r i t u a l i t

y

World ofIntellect

PERSONAL WORLD

“Whenever Zakariyya came to see his Maryam in the mihrab, he found her provided with sustenance.”

~ The Qur’an, Al-i-Imran verse 3:37

“Everything by nature is developing. The five senses are as the five doors, through which an endless chain of subtle things enters the personal world.”

~Drawing on The Qur’an, Al-Jathiya (Crouching) 45:13; Al-Hijr 15:21

“He who among you recognizes himself more, recognizes more his lord.”

~ From the Hadith (Sayings of The Holy Prophet)

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A S H KThe shell of the Beloved has fallen away Only the light remains

The body imposes such a suffering. My veins exposed. This heartache is deeper than anyone suspects

You abandoned me. And so, like a good disciple, I am abandoning myself as well.

It is difficult to move from you, And so I concern myself not with direction.

I refuse to sleep, I’m going to protest! By turning night into day

With the movement of one quarter step If you can take it.

Soon my feet will leave the ground And I may not prevent it from happening

Hands have applauded this Beauty Drums have been palmed in this Way

I am never awake But always awakening.

I’ll think not of how you broke my heart Only how you mirrored it, brighter than the original

Now that you and I are divorced, I write my Book of Wings In preparation for the real wedding

I have wept unimaginable tears Perhaps, this is all my imagination

Tanya Evanson Artist

Tawhida - 2, Tanya Evanson turning, 2004Photo still, 25.5cm X 20cm

A P a s s a g e t o t h e S o u lNow I have come to live, not at will; the first days of my life have begun. Within my cocoon, I think, mute and motionless… I must know the world around me. Do I have weight? Who am I? Where am I? Two mighty arms have surrounded me… I want to be rid of them, to be buoyant amidst a galaxy of weightlessness.

Darkness has overshadowed me. …With all stamina I break my cocoon and glide into the rainbow of my life; so, comes the season of passion and ecstasy.

Arising like a butterfly, I reach the zenith, swirl… as a bird, I fly. No time to see well.

There are sights passing in front of my eyes; I am perplexed… wander-ing above, below, right, left… I feel dizzy. Colours are blended, each drawing me one way. Music whis-pers from afar. I am at the peak… or perhaps I am so… Highness, solitude and puzzlement rule me. I fear… who am I? Where am I? Now, with no end to this period of my be-ing yet, another period runs over my life’s canvas, again not at will. Red, sound of music that turns harsher and colder… I hear voices in the air… I check if I have a voice too? I try to repeat the words as the voices I hear… Death, Death, Death… I too have a voice just like others… but, what about the meanings… I should seek them… I see some light, I run to it. Terrible heat is there.

A great fire. I find a heap of papers flaming. I have a strange feeling. I see the words whose meaning I want to find are in the fire. I bring with me as many papers as I can save. I start to read… read, read, and read…years pass… I am still reading.

I find various meanings for the same words. Now and then, I accompany the voices, perhaps to find the meanings I am looking for. Some-times, I search for them myself. Reading is now exhausting.

Meanwhile, there is merely one rep-etition in this ever-changing way: My knowledge of me and my life.

Once again, I am drowning in dark-ness. Voices are gone, papers old,

Rozita Moini-Shirazi, Passage to the Soul - 1: The Cocoon... 2006Photo of mixed-media collage

Rozita Moini-Shirazi, Passage to the Soul - 2: Awareness... 2006Photo of mixed-media collage

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words meaningless. I am confused, fearful and exhausted.

To move, no strength is left in me, in the dark I have leaned on a po-dium, thinking about the void; and weightlessness again… All of a sud-den, from that podium I am hurled to an unknown spot. With no answer at the end of this period of my life, I see another begins… Again, I fly, but this time landing on the lap of unfamiliar voices and colours; they are frightful. In this corner of the

world, I find myself trapped by the jaws of nameless pains. I miss the mute voices, burned papers and pale colors. I weep, and weep; sud-denly, I make out a woman among my tears. Who is she? How could I not have noticed her?

We have lived within one another, yet I have been seeking the words with meanings out of my body. I am from her, and she from me… I get to know myself. Together with my-self, I go for a tour, possibly to be-come a seed, or to rise like a plant from nothing. Like a rootless plant, I float on water; it rains and I stay on water, looking for hands to prevent me from drowning. One night, there comes fast wind and heavy rain. All tired of perseverance, I find, in an instant, a rootless plant beside me, tired too.

We talk to each other about any-thing. It was thrown here from a podium too. Then, we hold each other’s hands to stand in the storm, to get rooted… We have no roots in soil but have ties, and our branches and leaves come together. But, the sun is kind. Two seedlings grow be-side us. They are weak and fragile.

For years, I ponder on the growth of these two. One night, when the two are asleep, I think and recall that I was no plant at the outset; I am tired of being motionless. I am overwhelmed by a dream, and remember the voices that awakened me, and the papers that were burn-ing and giving light around me. And I find darkness again… I think about the mighty throw that brought me to this constant spot that is corrupt-ing me. I awake my soul mate and whisper my tale in his ear.

Nothing, he says… he cries… His tears run over his face. Once more, the storm starts and returns us both to the city of burned papers. We descend on a place. No one notices us. Loud music is heard. Everyone is dancing, a dance without harmony or rhythm…

With luggage on our back, we look around everywhere to find the place we lived in one day. Everything has changed and there is no sign of my home.

In the middle of my way, I see a piece of land, black. I remember the heap of papers that were on fire. Now, it is nothing but a dark piece of land.

As I’m still seeking my home, I wonder how in the twilight of my life I have fallen into oblivion.

Rozita Moini-Shirazi Artist

This essay accompanies the nine works in Rozita Moini-Shirazi’s “Passage to the Soul” (2006)

A Passage to the Soul The process of an unfinished transforma-tion through life and immigration.

1. The Cocoon, waiting to experience life for the first time.

2. Awareness, the opening of my eyes to both suffering and joy of life.

3. Uncertainty, puzzled at the loss of a future.

4. Sudden revolt, before getting to know myself I fall to pieces.

5. Emigrated, severed from the roots.

6. Lost, caged by the fear of unknown.

7. In Transition, a deepened perception of the inner self and the outer world.

8. Companion, the one who accompa-nied me during my journey.

9. Returned, past and present stitched and still searching.

Materials used: metal sheets, wire pieces, photo collage and project lighting. Pho-tography from the created images.

Rozita Moini-Shirazi, Passage to the Soul - 6: Lost, caged... 2006Photo of mixed-media collage

Rozita Moini-Shirazi, Passage to the Soul - 7: In Transition... 2006Photo of mixed-media collage

Rozita Moini-Shirazi, Passage to the Soul - 8: Companion... 2006Photo of mixed-media collage

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Artist’s Biography

Amir Ali Alibhai is an interdiscipli-nary artist, musician, independent curator and writer, who has been arts programmer at the Roundhouse Community Centre in Vancouver since 1997. Before that, he worked for several years as an educator and guest curator at the Richmond Art Gallery and was also Assistant Cura-tor at the Surrey Art Gallery. With Zool Suleman and Sherazad Jamal, he founded (and was president of) the Rungh Cultural Society, which published the magazine of Con-temporary Diasporic South Asian Culture (1992-1997). Amir earned a bachelor’s degree in microbiology (1985), a bachelor’s degree in fine arts (1989), as well as a master’s degree in curriculum studies (UBC, 2000); his master’s thesis was on cross-cultural collaboration. In do-ing work for ‘communities of col-our’, Alibhai became interested in community-based art practice and community cultural development. Realizing the need to develop new skills and expertise, he embraced multiple disciplines and the view of himself as a ‘cultural worker’.

A m i r A l i A l i b h a i

Amir Ali Alibhai, 2005Photo: Peter Mey

Alibhai’s current art practice focus-es on ephemeral works and ritual. He is currently on the Board of the Canada Council for the Arts.

Artist’s StatementMy practice as a professional artist has emerged as an interdiscipli-nary career; I have worn many hats — curator, writer, educator, musi-cian, activist, community organizer, and visual artist. I think of myself as a cultural worker. When I began working after completing art school in the late 1980s, the cultural discourse was focused on identity politics. I began a research of

cultural signifiers and used my work to construct a reclaimed South Asian identity. I have been interested in the border-country between cul-tures, disciplines, aesthetic tradi-tions, and intellectual traditions be-cause this has been my lived reality. It is a reality I share with countless other Canadians.

Since completing my Masters De-gree in 2000, I have returned to the studio in a more focused manner. I have worked and exhibited in the public, non-profit art context and made work about issues, ideas, and concepts which are important to me and, I hope, to the broader audi-ence with which I share my work. My initial interests and directions have pushed me to explore new and hybrid aesthetic and formal possi-bilities.

I continue to be interested in trans-formation, ritual and conceptual architecture in my work. My current work explores notions of ‘creating’ sacred space and ritual, both on my canvases and in 3-D space. I’ve re-cently been engaged in working with communities to create ephemeral ‘earth-prayers’, collaborating with

First Nations artists and artists such as Naomi Singer. I approach art-making as I do prayer or medita-tion; I seek spiritual transformation through the rites and rituals of my creative process, and aim to affect the gallery viewer through their own process of interaction with the finished work. My recent work explores, more actively than previ-ously, my Muslim, Ismaili identity; it is important, in our present times especially, to increase knowledge and understanding of contemporary Islam’s pluralism: culturally, intel-lectually, and politically.

Amir Ali Alibhai, Red Lotus 2, 2006Mixed-media on canvas, 20cm X 20cm

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Tanya Evanson is a Caribbean-Québécoise Lover, Writer, Oral Poet, Vocalist and Director of Mother Tongue Media recently re-located from Vancouver, Canada to Istanbul, Turkey. She has been pub-lished in print and CD anthologies since 1995 and produced spoken word and music series and festivals from 1996 to 2004 in Canada. Re-leased independently in 2004, her debut CD Invisible World features her spoken word poetry backed by some of Vancouver’s best Jazz and World Music artists. Her videopoem Almost Forgot my Bones premiered at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival and has since been shown at festi-vals all over North America.

T a n y a E v a n s o n

Records) and her own upcoming al-bum, tentatively titled Public Dervish, to be released in 2007. She is cur-rently performing throughout Europe as a Whirling Dervish with Turkish Electronic-Folk group Mercan Dede. For more information see: www.mothertonguemedia.com

Artist’s Statement“I love, therefore I work, therefore I am at service to the world. If I get in the way of these things, I am lost.”

Tanya Evanson, 2005Photo: Heidi A. Thorson-Dean

Tawhida - 3, Tanya Evanson turning, 2004Photo still, 20cm X 25.5cm

Evansan says her words and vocal style honour the Sufi spirit of Rumi, the Griots and Griottes of West Africa, the streaming consciousness of the American Beat Poets, the vocal potency of Gil Scott Heron and the linguistic innovation of Saul Williams gathered inside her attempt to equal the smoothness of Billie Holiday.

Upcoming works include Brifo’s Southfull CD (2006 La Baleine

R i y a d h H a s h i m

Artist’s BiographyBorn and raised in Iraq, Hashim came to Canada in 1998 with a degree in Fine Arts (Painting) from the University of Baghdad. He has been actively engaged in profes-sional arts for fourteen years and is a founding member of the Animatic Art Movement. He believes that his works are like relationships that grow and develop in new directions with the passing of each day. Hashim will often paint more than one piece at a time, allowing resonance and change to take place within each work. He uses simple lines to trace shapes and portions of the human body among

Riyadh Hashim, Ascendancy, 2004Mixed-media on canvas, 194cm X 53.5cm X 7.5cm

washes of colour in various forms, sizes and colours. His works can be found in Canadian, American and international private collections and at www.hashimstudio.com.

Artist’s Statement

I attempt to represent what is not only an innate psychic vision, but also one that is inherent in our world today. What I paint is what we are coming to see. It is not the objects that are my concern, but the emergence of the implosion of space and time and the vision that inexo-rably accompanies this realization. The result is a way of seeing and a means of representation.

Deconstructions, wasteland, irre-sponsibility, meaninglessness, these elements are what crash with reality. My paintings are abstract, I sweep up the deconstructions, and what is left is the space (traces/forms) instead of shapes. The shapes are not important any more, what is really important is the meaning left behind. Its not the story behind it, it’s the effect and the result. At the end are questions.

Riyadh Hashim, 2006Photo: Courtesy of the artist

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F a r h e e n H a QArtist’s BiographyFarheen HaQ is a visual artist work-ing with photo, performance and video installation. Her work explores ideas of cultural inscriptions of the body, gender, ritual and gesture. She has exhibited widely across North America, including New York, Los Angeles, Toronto and Vancou-ver. Farheen lives in Victoria, BC. For more information on her work see www.farheenhaq.com.


My art practice investigates the body as a site of struggle and perform-ance as a way to activate space. My artistic practice of video installation and photo-based work where I use myself as a subject is a way for me to exert my agency and create ex-pansive spaces in opposition to the many closed and rigid systems that are imposed upon my body.

Women’s bodies are wrapped up in many layers of codes. My video and performance work is a medium through which I come to understand my own body and perform my gen-der as a struggle. I use performance as a way to assert my body and cre-ate new rituals for myself. I observe formal and aesthetic properties of my own cultural practices which I utilize and explore in my work. I create videos where I choreograph my own rituals and imagine new spaces of congregation.

In my art-making, I attempt to reclaim my own cultural practices and exert my agency in the cultural and public spaces I occupy.

In performing and making the work, the moments of resistance and transformation are what inspire me. As codified as our cultures and spaces may be, the room to move within their structures does exist. In the realm of my videos, I want the viewer to experience a space of limitless possibility.

Farheen HaQ, Adrift, 2005Still from video

Farheen HaQ, 2005Photo: Helene Cyr

Farheen HaQ, Adrift, 2005Still from video

S h e r a z a d J a m a l


Sherazad Jamal was born in Lon-don, England. Both sets of grand-parents had migrated from Gujarat, India, to Nairobi and she arrived in Canada at age eight or nine. She grew up speaking English, Gujarati and Swahili.

She is an inter-disciplinary art-ist with over 15 years experience, ranging from the visual arts, archi-tecture, creative writing, teaching, graphic design/magazine publishing, to arts policy-making. Her current art practice draws upon themes such

Sherazad Jamal, May 2005Photo: Alexis

as cultural narrative, motherhood, myth/spirituality/ritual, cultural diversity and the immigrant experi-ence, social/gender issues and self-empowerment.

She is interested in the role art-making plays in self-discovery and transformation, through fusing concept, process, form and story telling. She works in hybrid aesthet-ics, influenced primarily by Islamic, Indian and Western sources, and she finds nothing more exciting than forming connections between seem-ingly disparate traditions and ideas. Her most recent artwork has con-sisted of mixed media installations exploring the events surrounding the 9-11 tragedy as well as the poetry of the Sufi mystic, Jaladin Rumi. Her current work is a mixed media installation on the themes of balance between intellect and intuition, myth and spiritual awakenings.


Seven times I will pass through this fire

This fire that seems to promise warmth

and comfort

Don’t be fooled!!

It is not the pleasant dancing embers of

the domestic hearth

on a cold winters night.

It is instead the fire of the forge.

Working all the elements of what I AM

Melting down to essences

Extracting what needs

be carried forward

Sloughing off what is no longer necessary

Transforming mercury to Gold.

Seven sacred sites laid bare and

metamorphosed

Sherazad Jamal, Me Tangere (Embrace Me) ~ Chakra 1, 2004Acrylic on canvas, 84cm X 61cm

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J a b b a r A l J a n a b iArtist’s Biography

Born in Baghdad, Iraq, in 1962, Jab-bar Al Janabi received a diploma in Fine Arts from the Baghdad Institute of Art in 1986. In his early years of training, Al Janabi had the opportu-nity to show his work alongside that of his instructors, a privileged and unusual position for a student within the Institute. This privilege also al-lowed him to become a member of the Iraqi Art Union much earlier in his career than would normally have been the case.

Al Janabi received classical train-ing in painting, which is evident in his use of colour and line, and the balance of his compositions. How-ever, he decided to abandon the realistic style of the classical and move to more mythological themes using symbols from Mesopotamia and Eastern arts. In his recent work, Al Janabi uses symbols in combina-tion with contemporary stylization and abstraction to create a more modern style. He uses a variety of mediums including oils, acrylics and watercolor.

Jabbar Al Janabi exhibited his work in Iraq from 1984 to 1993; in Jordan between 1994-1998, and in Canada since 1999. Hav-ing moved to Canada in 1998, Al Janabi founded the AtmAsphere Art Society in Vancouver in 2002, with the mandate to develop and promote new, live, post-modern practices in music, dance, visual art, spoken word, song and multi-media, by way of theatrical and experiential cross-discipline and cross-cultural collabo-rations. Al Janabi is curator of Ishtar art gallery in Vancouver and Direc-tor of the annual ANU multi-media collaborative performances: He directed ANU-1 in November 2001 at the WISE Hall in Vancouver; ANU-2, in November 2002 at the Roundhouse Community Centre in Vancouver; ANU-3 in October 2003 and ANU-4 in July 2005, both at the Roundhouse. His paintings can be found in private collections in London (UK), Sweden, Germany, the United Emirates, France, the USA and Canada.

Jabbar Al Janabi, Self Portrait, 2006Digital image


My art is the visual manifestation of the relationship between myself and the great being, who is the light of myth and symbols, the light of the history of the present moment and the excitement of the future in the now. Since the age of nine I have been searching intensively for a new vehicle by which to go there...

Because I grew up in a family of visual artists, I became a painter. I still paint but what I am trying to do in my painting now is find a path

through ANU which touches our roots and our inner movements.

ANU: dance, music, painting, spo-ken word, by artists from diverse ethnic backgrounds, improvising together in a circular space sculpted by beams of light cutting through the darkness. These performances are named ANU - after the Sumer-ian God of the Sky.

I seek to bring creative people together and allow them to influ-ence and spark each other. Further, we seek to involve audiences in the moment of creation by presenting improvised performances - artists creating in front of the public. What happens through these perform-ances is inspiration - artists inspired to push past their own boundaries in the rest of their lives, and audiences inspired to live more creatively. The rehearsal period for these shows, prior to the performance, is a meet-ing and interaction between all the

professional artists chosen and involved, discussing ideas as human beings about art, dreams, culture, creativity and society. After meeting three times, the artists go on stage with a general plan, no script and one guide - the lighting director.

Throughout the performance, the art-ists relinquish themselves as individual human beings on earth and walk Anu’s way as the god of the sky, con-necting everything from within their own creative souls and spirits with the forms and techniques of performance, thereby bringing a mythical legend to life in front of an audience.

The performance is set up in the round - with a dance floor in the centre and musicians planted within the audience. Four plexiglass 3’ X 6’ canvasses are set behind the audi-ence (see p.17). The show is control-led by a secret lighting plan known only to the director.

Jabbar Al Janabi, Release II, 2005One of a pair. Multimedia on wood, ca. 62cm X 29cm

Yasmin Pyarali Karim, 2001Photo: Sakar Pyarali Karim

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Y a s m i n P y a r a l i K a r i mArtist’s BiographyYasmin Pyarali Karim is a media artist, curator, animator and inde-pendent film maker. Her recent work is about the balance between the dot and the cosmos which explores the sangam junction of spiritual and material science.

Yasmin’s cutting-edge non-narrative films have been screened around the world and have won awards, including the AMPIA for best ani-mation. My Mountain is currently touring festivals.

Artist’s StatementMy recent work is about balance based on symbolism within ab-stractism which is explored with colour, light textures and sensitivity to movement.

My expressions are renewed by balance between din and dunya, the physical, spiritual and intellectual life. I explore the sangam junction of spiritual and material science. How the joining creates change, limit-less potential and new posibilities, the search to discover how every particle is a semi-circle of matter and a semi-circle of soul which joins together as a circle of light.

What does the movement of colour as light say?

What does the movement of sound as vibrations say?

How do particles interact with differ-ent movement?

How does motion effect vibration?

How nature studies, specifically cycles in nature, provide unique bounties, beauty, variety and solu-tions that can be recreated for the benefit of humanity.

The greatest undiscovered Ismaili poet of the 21st Century Prof. Dr. Allamah Nasir Hunzai inspires me.

Knowledge and action are the manifest sun and the world of soul,

Knowledge and action are the architect of the world and the hidden treasure.

It has been ascertained by thinking and reflecting

Knowledge and action are the capital of the nations of the world.

That which is always the source of immense pride and happiness is,

Knowledge and action, which are the fruit of heart and comfort of soul.

Yasmin Karim, Film strips from Oppo (1997), Zarra (2002), Sijjil (1995), My Mountain (2005), Cameraless animation

F a r i d a M a w j iArtist’s BiographyBorn in Dar-es-salaam, Tanzania, I came to Canada over thirty years ago, meandering my way through various countries with my family be-fore settling in Vancouver fourteen years ago.

That is when my affair with clay started. My first brief taste of experi-ence with clay turned into a pas-sion. Over the years I have explored different firing methods and tech-niques, challenging the clay. Explor-ing form, texture and color are the three elements that excite me about working with clay. My work includes functional, non-functional and sculp-tural pieces.

Another passion of mine is reiki: a form of hands-on healing with energy that activates and invigorates the physical mental, emotional and spiritual being. It has been a great influence on me and my work. As I manage and mold the clay into artwork, the energy flows from my hands into the clay. I encourage the viewers to connect with the work on a physical and spiritual level. This connection, I believe can lead to a

transfer of energy from the artwork to the viewer.

My art is influenced by my East Indian Islamic heritage, my African roots, my travels, and events and influences in my present environ-ment. I have been greatly influenced by the shapes, textures, and colors from these cultures, although I enjoy exploring other cultures as well. My passion for knowledge, experi-menting, teaching and creating is a permanent urge that motivates me.

My work has been exhibited in To-ronto and Vancouver; I now live on Vancouver Island.

Artist’s StatementWhy do I do art? Why do I feel so passionate about certain media? Why do I yearn to explore different materials, and techniques?

I have no direct, simple answers to these questions. All I know is that the thought of working in my favorite medium, and having the opportunity to explore the material further, creates such a sense of an-ticipation and excitement that I feel every cell of my body dancing with pleasure. I feel making art provides a connection to my inner self. I lose myself so totally in the medium that at times I feel I am part of the mate-rial I am working with.

Working is spontaneous, with total surrender to the sensual clay and inner guidance. Often my work is not preconceived, rather, an idea sparks my creativity and whatever forms from that idea, becomes my artwork.

My intention is to invite the viewer to feel in touch with the material, form, and texture. In the process of creating art for myself, if my work awakens a memory, healing, emo-

Farida Mawji, April 2006Photo: Courtesy of the artist

40 41

tions, curiosity, and mystery or en-livens the mind of the viewer/user, then I will have more than succeed-ed in my journey of creativity and in being of service to mankind.

I see myself mainly as a clay art-ist, a medium for which my passion developed somewhat late in life. The sensual quality of the clay allows me

to explore the elements of form, color and texture, which I find exhilarating. Although I have made prints and worked with mixed media, clay continues to be my prime medium. My interests in clay are diverse. I love the translucency and the delicacy of porcelain, and the robustness of the stoneware. I enjoy playing with texture, and color and harmony between function and aesthetic. I use both wheelwork and hand building to create the forms and add texture either with the nu-merous tools or through glazes. My thrown pieces are often altered to give them interest and dimension. In my forms, my intention is to reach up to heaven and yet remain con-nected to the earth.

The following poem by Rumi tells the story of my inspiration:

In your light I learn how to love, In your beauty, how to make poems, You dance inside my chest, Where no one sees you, But sometimes I do, and that sight becomes this art.

~Rumi

Farida Mawji, Emerging, 1996/1997Raku fired clay, 39.5cm X 25.5cm X 15.25cm

F a r u k h K h e d r i

Artist’s BiographyFarukh Khedri was born into an Ismaili-Muslim family in Kabul, Afghanistan in 1970. Around the age of thirteen, he began to carve shabakah (Farsi, Noun, also spelled ‘shabakeh’ in English: the craft-based art of wood veneer cut calligraphy and floral/decorative pat-terns). By the time Farukh left Af-ghanistan to study abroad at twenty, he had carved around twenty pieces, all quite large, all with verses from the Quran in different calligraphic styles. His architecture-studies in Almata, Kazakhstan, led to a ten-year stay in Kazakhstan. Applying to emigrate to Canada through the

Aga Khan Foundation, Farukh and his wife arrived in Victoria in 1998. They have two young sons.

Artist’s Statement (narrated to Astri Wright)

Farukh’s friends know him as a handy-man, as someone who loves to work with his hands. It was his cousin, Shahwali, known as the top shabakah carver in Kabul, who taught him shabakah-kauri [to cut or carve shabakah] when he was thirteen. Except for the two pieces in this exhibition, all of Farukh’s work is still in Afghanistan. While living there, he never sold any work; it was all gifted to family and friends. After arriving in Canada, it took Farukh six years before he could get hold of the kind of saw he needed: it had to have a deep enough space between the blade and the handle to allow for deep and flexible cuts into the wood veneer. The saws available in Canada were too shallow. Finally, two years ago, someone was able to bring over the right kind of saw from home.

It took Farukh about three months to carve each of Bismillah (pg.5)

and Surat Kursi. The calligraphic composition in Bismillah is famous for its beauty and you see it often. Farukh designed the floral vine-scrolls in the four corners around it. “Surat Kursi” is one of the most popular verses from the Quran. Eve-ry Muslim’s home has a Surat Kursi somewhere. Farukh decided to carve this passage in a circle-frieze around the central praise, “La Il-laha Ellal LAHH” [English phonetic represenation of the Arabic “There is no god but GOD] in the centre. Farukh is pleased at the interest and enthusiasm his work garners here, rare as this art form is in Canada.

Farukh Khedri, April 2006Photo: Almira Aitzhanova

Farukh Khedri, Surat Kursi, 2005Cut plywood and pressed wood on velvet on board, 37cm X 37cm

Ayat-al-Kursi (The Qur’an, Sura 2, Ayat 255) The Throne Verse

Allah!There is no Godbut He-the Living,The Self-subsisting, Eternal.No slumber can seize HimNor Sleep. His are all thingsIn the heavens and on earth.Who is there can intercedeIn His presence except As he permitteth? He knowethWhat (appeareth to His creaturesAs) Before or Afteror Behind them.Nor shall they compassAught of his knowledgeExcept as He willeth.His throne doth extendOver the heavensAnd on earth, and He feelethNo fatigue in guarding And preserving them,For He is the Most High.The Supreme (in glory).

(Abdullah Yusuf’Ali translation)

This is the verse carved in a circle in Khedri’s “Surat Kursi”, p. 41

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F a r i b a M i r z a i eArtist’s Biography

Born in Abadan in South-Western Iran in 1964, Fariba Mirzaie played with artful combinations of forms and materials from the age of five. When the Iran-Iraq war erupted in 1980, the family moved from the border-region to the north. Around this time, Fariba started designing fashion, soon heading her own successful business. She moved to Vancouver in 1996 with her daughter and undertook formal art studies. Graduating from the textile art program at Capilano College, she also studied fashion art at Vancouver Community College.

Mirzaie’s designs are all created through experiments with unusual ma-terials such as tree bark, dry leaves, cornhusks, etc. Her textiles result in the creation of unique items of wearable art. Her love for designing textiles contributes to the challenge of transforming one art form into an-other. Her work has been included in several exhibitions throughout Van-couver and the Lower Mainland. Her work can be seen at www.gabbeh.ca.


I see myself as an artist who turns to nature for both materials and inspi-

ration. Some of my clothing-art is brightly colored, some is in deeper, darker earth tones; all of it is dis-tinctly organic in pattern. Texture and depth are what I aim to bring into my clothes. The materials I use in my designs are as important to me as the subject matter.

I am always inspired by nature as well as my cultural background. I enjoy using ancient motifs, transposing them into contemporary design. I feel that one of the contributions to the world of fashion and clothing art I have been able to make is the originality of my

textile print design and the way I have allowed the natural properties of each textile to influence the garment’s shape.

I love designing, cutting, shaping, dye-ing, sculpting, and sewing with textiles. I thrill at the mental challenge of taking an art form to another, unexpected level. Unlike many fashion designers, I don’t just design the textile prints or dresses; I love to make each piece myself. This hands-on, time-consum-ing process fuels the direction in my pieces. It is my abiding wonder at this world and our experience of and in it that I am exploring in my work.

Nature, Love, and God*

From an early age, the color and shape and harmony of nature and its relation-ship to human nature fascinated me. Love of drawing/painting and nature, on the one hand, and passion for math-ematics and the human inner-world, on the other hand, made me express myself in fashion art.

After years of observing nature I real-ized the balance between, nature’s different aspects (survival, color, and shape) is changing rapidly, faster than our minds can imagine...

Fariba Mirzaie, April 2006Photo: Frank Tresidder

Fariba Mirzaie, Living Beauty, 2005Burned, pressed, dyed silk, 86.5cm X 128cm

Then I realized if I stay connected to nature, I can understand my na-ture [and] therefore understand the present through the connection of mind and nature with the future of that moment...

Eventually I found, even if I stay con-nected enough to nature / my nature, still I am effected by negative energy thoughts, created by all humans not just me, spatially/especially at this period of time. (Our minds are con-nected)...

The answer exists in the middle (Heart). My heart does not belong to me, it belongs to us (GOD).

Whatever is happening inside of me (as regards my peace) is happening between me in relation with others and also in the larger picture of the world (Love).

Negative + positive = energy/Love

Harmony between West Side and East Side of brain = energy (love)

Harmony (understanding) between emotion-al people and intellectual people = Love

Harmony between western part (intellect) and eastern part (emotion) of the world (Middle; also the Middle East) = the power of Love

Real Love is a love of God: He is constantly sending energy/Knowledge/signs to us, but we are free to use our free will or His.

Our free will (ego) has limited Knowl-edge; it is blind; it is what causes our problems, and then we have to accept the consequences.

His will exists in the heart; if I fol-low it, I’ll see me I’ll see us I’ll see Him/Truth.

He never judges us nor does He pun-ish us. We punish ourselves. He just lets us experience (in time), and we suffer; then one day we will see who we are, until suffering is transformed (Rebirth).

He is here with us in our heart waiting for us to give up our will.

* This is part of a longer essay (“Nature Thoughts”) by Mirzaie. Due to space, only a portion could be included here. My edits & italics. A.W.

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R o z i t a M o i n i - S h i r a z iArtist’s Biography

Rozita Moini-Shirazi is a Persian Canadian woman. Moini-Shirazi is a visual artist and her works are main-ly based on photo-collage, painting and installations. Until the age of twenty-one, she lived in Iran. After living through the Iranian revolution and the Iran-Iraq war, Moini-Shirazi immigrated to Germany in 1984 and to Canada in 1990.

Artist Statement

I have lived through the Iranian revolution and the Iran-Iraq war. A world of violence, censorship, and silence. Art became a way to ham-mer at the unsaid and the unseen. It became my voice.

Although some of my current work uses the image of the eye behind the veil, my concerns are not just with the repression women face in revo-lutionary Iran but with the dynamics between women and culture in gen-eral. Even in works that represent my personal experiences in child-hood, adolescence, the revolution, war, and exile, I try to show a proc-ess of growth that is common to the female psyche. I have been active in the art world for the last twenty years and have exhibited my works in Iran, Germany, and Canada.

Notes to “Passage to the Soul” ~ series of nine works:

(For the full prose-poem, see “A Pas-sage to the Soul,” pp.27-29.)

Now I have come to live, not at will; the first days of my life have begun.

Rozita Moini-Shirazi, May 2006Photo: Astri Wright

S h a r i f a D o n n a W e b bArtist’s Biography

Sharifa is a visual artist working with paint, handpulled prints, and her own handmade paper. Her work explores relationships in her own and other cultures, various aspects of transformation, and the mystical and spiritual found in nature. She has recently moved from Victoria to Vancouver and has exhibited mainly in British Columbia. Some of her work can be viewed at www.artistsinourmidst.com and www.gobc.ca.

Artist’s StatementI am a recent graduate of Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in Van-couver. I use a variety of media ~ paint, collage, printmaking and my own handmade paper ~ in my art practice. The interplay of colour, tex-ture and different media provide the language for my explorations. The theme apparent in nearly all of my work comes from my close affinity with the natural environment; it is the settings and elements of nature that provide the structure and context for my work. This goes beyond what I see in the natural world and instead, reflects my own experiences of it and my remembered thoughts and feel-ings in relation to these experiences.

My travels, my relationships in my own and other cultures, and my deep connection with Sufi mysticism also inform my art practice. The im-ages and symbols that I interweave or juxtapose in my pieces reflect my fascination with the mysteries that I encounter: the dualities which illuminate the paradoxical nature of things. They reflect the past and present, the mythical and the natu-ral, the profound and the mundane. The portal, threshold, or entrance

~ ubiquitous symbol for transfor-mation, that bridge between inner and outer space ~ is apparent in some of my work, reflecting the inevitability of change; the opportu-nity to confront and/or embrace the possibilities for growth.

In the past, my concern was prima-rily with representational imagery, but I have moved into abstraction as it seems to reflect more adequately my own deeply personal and emo-tional responses to my experiences; to evoke the sense of wonder I often feel when I am in nature. Thus, my work is a synthesis of memory, expe-riences and insight, and in this way it is evocative rather than descriptive.

Sharifa Donna Webb, Meditation, 2000Artists’s handmade paper on matboard in-scribed with letterpress, 16.5cm X 14cm X 14cm

Sharifa Donna Webb, 2005Photo: Astri Wright

Rozita Moini-Shirazi, Passage to the Soul - 5: Emigrated... 2006Photo of mixed-media collage

Within my cocoon, I think, mute and motionless… I must know the world around me. Do I have weight? Who am I? Where am I? Two mighty arms have surrounded me… I want to be rid of them, to be buoyant amidst a galaxy of weight-lessness.

Darkness has overshadowed me. …With all stamina I break my cocoon and glide into the rainbow of my life; so, comes the season of passion and ecstasy.

Pari Azarm Motamedi, Clarity and Confusion, 2006Watercolour on paper, 78.5 cm X 104 cm

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P a r i A z a r m M o t a m e d iArtist’s Biography

Pari Azarm Motamedi is an Iranian born architect and artist. She has been living and working in Vancou-ver, British Columbia for twenty-two years. The medium she enjoys is painting on paper as well as work-ing in precious metals. Her work is inspired by nature, and the visual arts, architecture, poetry and music of Iran. Immersed in the traditional

Pari Azarm Motamedi, 2005Photo: Courtesy of the artist

music of her home country, through a meditative, unhurried engage-ment with painting, she submits to a process that at times touches a quiet realm beyond joy, and beyond pain… In rare moments of clarity, humility and immense gratitude, an expression takes form on paper, conveying a different layer of under-standing to a question posed.

Pari has had solo and group shows in the United States and Canada, including New York, Washington DC, Atlanta, Scottsdale and Vancou-ver. Her work is featured in various publications and several private collections.

If with the winds of autumn, the tree lost its leaves; and if with the harsh cold of winter, the tree lost its vitality; with the clouds of spring, there is hope of new leaves.

No grief for the living tree with no leaves;

but alas, how unfortunate, the leaf, with no tree.

~ Mohammad Reza Shafii Kadkani (Contemporary Persian Poet)

How wonderful to be a leaf on this tree; a simple leaf, sharing this moment - in the sun and the wind- and eventually, the Ultimate Unknown with all the others.

No need for a name, only caring connections to each other; and the common root, in the One mysterious, magnificent origin.

And so I paint the zikr and the mantra of gratitude.

~ Pari Azarm MotamediVancouver, 2006

Pari Azarm MotamediGarden of Pomengranates, 1990Watercolour on paper, 50cm X 22.5cm

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L e s l i e S t a n i c kArtist’s BiographyLeslie Stanick is an artist, exhibit designer/curator, and educator cur-rently researching the integration of spirituality in education through art in a Doctoral program at the Uni-versity of British Columbia. Inspired by the poetry and teachings of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi, she has been exploring Sufi metaphors for the opening of the heart through art, as a form of spiritual inquiry and visual zikr (Divine Remembrance) since 1989. Study and practice in the Buddhist, Vedic, and Sufi tradi-tions for over 25 years continues to inform her art, life, teaching and in-volvement in interfaith dialogue. She is a member of the Rumi Society of Vancouver, the InterSpiritual Cen-tre, and the American Educational Research Association Interest Group on spirituality.

Ms. Stanick received an MEd in art curriculum and instruction from the University of Victoria, and a BFA in studio art from UBC. She has designed and curated over 40 exhibitions for museums, galleries and EXPO 86, and conducted arts-based research for the Knowledge Network and CBC Radio.


Illuminations is a series of ‘light paintings’ inspired by the poetry of Mevlana Jalaluddin Rumi reflect-ing Sufi metaphors for the process of awakening. I sought to visually express the soft openings of heart which unfolded through study with Sufi master, Shaykh Sherif Catalkaya, within the support of a contemporary Sufi learning com-munity. Feeling my way with the hands of the heart, the work enacts the process of seeking the Light

through removing the “veils of the heart”. The inquiry became a performative process, documented through photographs and poetic text. My life, and the soft, intimate folds of my own heart became the site of my inquiry. These inner portraits can be seen as renderings of the nuances of a human heart in the process of unfolding.

Rumi’s poems still the mind, attune the heart, and invite the listener into deep contemplation, providing meaning and direction to the inner search for wholeness and awaken-ing. Mediating between spirit and form, artistic response embodies the search, giving visual expres-sion to the ineffable. Rumi’s poems continue to nourish my own artistic expression, as well as my teaching practice and development of a peda-gogy of the awakening heart; an arts-based curriculum which integrates spirituality in education through art, informed by poetic spiritual text, silence and the inner search.

My interest in using poetry and spiritual text as invitation to con-templative practice, and art-making as spiritual inquiry, developed over

Leslie Stanick, April 2006Photo: Astri Wright

five years of teaching “Drawing from within: Art for Self Discovery” workshops. Rumi’s poetry provided meaningful avenues of inquiry and fruitful creative openings for my students in community college and studio settings. I continued my research in the Masters of Education art program at the University of Vic-toria, investigating how art making might function as a form of spiritual inquiry, meditation and prayer. I am currently developing “Drawing from the Heart of Rumi” workshops and research at the University of British Columbia PhD program in Curricu-lum Studies in Art.

Leslie Stanick, Fragrance of the Heart, 2004Digital photo of textile collage and lightI wondered, in attempting to reveal Essence through form, how can we allude to that which is unseen, yet exquisitely Present? How can we convey the “fragrance of the heart”? Rumi invites us to become that fragrance. ~ L.S.

Najat Zakhour, Myths of the Middle East, 2000Oil on canvas, 20 panels each 30.5cm X 30.5cm, total size 129.5cm X 162.5cm

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N a j a t Z a k h o u rArtist’s BiographyNajat Zakhour was born in Rabah, Homs, Syria on December 12th, 1944. She was raised in Damascus. Her parents and six brothers and sisters all studied at the University of Damascus. Zakhour started study-ing art in highschool. She graduated from the University in Damascus, the Department of Decorative Arts, in 1974. Her specialization was abstract art but she was trained the classical way, with drawing and painting from masterworks and life.

Najat Zakhour came to Canada in 1997, where she lives in Vancouver.

Artist’s StatementWhen I was a little girl I used all my spare time for drawing. Hand-made articles caught my interest later, during my teenage years. I began to work with diverse materials like wood and metals. I pressed orna-mental decorations on copper and silver, which were attached to the surface of wooden jewelry boxes. I continued with this during my stud-ies at university. What interested me with the jewelry boxes was that they were used as ordinary articles in everyday life. I wanted to make them look extraordinary.This time taught me patience and accuracy because these materials took time to process. I found my inspiration in my teacher Josephine Santo Tajer who also shared my interest.

At the university my graduate work focused on tapestries. I started by making ordinary arabic carpets. I found the colours and patterns in carpets very fascinating and artistic. In the beginning, the tapestry theme was not accepted as a topic for a graduate work by the members of the faculty of arts because it was something new. However, my tutor

supported my idea and encouraged me to continue with the selected theme.I graduated with distinction and my tapestry work earned a lot of attention. Once again, my vision was to transform well-known and conventional articles into something special. Providing a fresh look at less-valuable, common objects was my purpose.

The richness of colours holds great importance to me. In my works I have focused on events which have had an impact upon me by causing changes in my private life as well as in world politics. For me painting is a process during which I empty my thoughts and feelings onto the canvas. That is why every painting tells a story, some of them many. My present work is made up mostly of drawings and paintings; the most recent ones bring out the more ab-stract side of my artistic vision.

Najat Zakhour, April 2006Photo: Astri Wright

Najat Zahkour, Artist at the Moment of Crea-tion, 2006. Acrylic on canvas, 91cm X 60cm

was scheduled to open. The finely designed website is full of excellent visual and written materials, many of which complement “Seeker, Sentry, Sage,” which, however, in addition to focusing on West Coast Canada, also includes other important non-Arab avenues to and from the Islamic world, such as South and Central Asia, Persia/Iran, and European-Canadian converts. Finally, among these important select exhibitions must be mentioned a rare offering in Canada of contemporary artists living in part of the Muslim world. In 2004, the North Vancouver Community Arts Council (NVCAC) gallery hosted “Beyond the Art of Illumination: The Contemporary Art of Iran” exhibited the work of 45 painters from and still living in Iran, 14 of them women. The exhibition was co-sponsored by the Society of Iranian Painters (SIP), the Institute for Promotion of Visual Arts, and the Web Association of Canadian Artists (WACA).

8 In the same way that art historical or curatorial research into the work of Canadian (or American, or European) artists of Muslim backgrounds is in its infancy, so is the knowledge-production around contemporary art and artists in the Islamic/Muslim world. This is one of the frontiers of art history as taught in the western(-style) academic system today. This is reflected in the wealth of information available on the Internet but not in conventional publications. In part this disciplinary ‘under-development’ is a matter of language-access: we need funding to train researchers and for translators to open up avenues to art historical scholarship in the various languages of Islam. For the Near East, four good books are accessible in English; Ali 1997; Nashashibi 1994; Lloyd 2002; and Karnouk 2005. For Iran, see Ekhtiar and Sardar, 2000-06. For Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, see Wright 1994; 2005; and Northmore-Aziz 2005.

9 In 1998, 140 years of Chinese immigration to Canada was celebrated; in 2005 Canada celebrated the centennial of Indian immigration. These official dates may also need future revision to reflect even longer presence.

10 Having kept a close eye on this situation over the fifteen years I have lived in Canada, this is one of the main reasons I recently became a Canadian citizen.

11 Syncretism is a term made part of the common academic vocabulary primarily from Clifford Geertz’ writings on Indonesian (Javanese, Madurese, Balinese) cultures. The term refers to the combination of different forms of belief or practice; the fusion of two or more originally different… forms (Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, www.m-w.dictionary/syncretism.

12 Métissage ~ Cultural intermixing; a term used by Aïda Kaouk, in “A Message from the Curator,” Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation, Oct 17, 2001/Oct 7, 2002.www.civilization.ca/cultur/cespays/pay1_10e.html. ‘Mélange’ is another term used by Salman Rushdie.

13 The idea of the Silk Road resonates deeply with most of the artists in this exhibition. Hence the choice of Silk Road Stories as the title for the artist symposium held on May 13th, 2006, in connection with the opening of the exhibition.

14 Tariq Ali’s excellent novels recreate historically researched and sound examples of this, as well as its demise; three I have enjoyed are: A Sultan in Palermo. London; New York: Verso, 2005 (a novel about Cartographers, Muslims, Sultans in Sicily and Palermo (Italy), 1016-1194); The Book of Saladin. London: Verso, 1998 (a novel about Saladin, Sultan of Egypt and Syria, 1137-1193; Islamic relations wth Christianity; Jerusalem’s history-Latin Kingdom, 1099-1244; Islamic Empire-750-1258); and Shadows of the Pomegranate Tree. London; New York: Verso, 1993. (A novel about Muslims in Spain, 16th century History; Ferdinand and Isabella, 1479-1516, the persecution of Muslims after centuries of peaceful rule and co-existence).

15 While there are proclamations from some Muslims that there is only one truth and no interpretation is possible or allowable (and that statement sounds familiar to any of us who grew up in the Christian cultural context; I heard it stated even just yesterday in personal conversation, that Jesus is the only truth), the question remains as to whether this would be the view of an absolute majority of Muslims around the world. I would guess not, and most specifically not among the majority of 2nd generation Muslims living in multi-cultural societies. Yet, unless and until the human mind can mutate in significant ways, there will always be literalists and ideologues among us.

16 And there are many more Muslim-Canadian artists even just in B.C. than those featured in the limited space here.

17 In addition to languages people actively speak, many were exposed also to others which they understood some of. For example, the two official languages in Afghanistan are Dary (a form of Farsi) and Pushtu; in addition there are many Indians living there. Combined with the enormously popular Indian films, many Afghanis understand some Hindi, Farukh Khedri tells me. Khedri, who studied in Kazakhstan, also had to learn Russian.

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1 In addition to Godel and Bell’s Quantum Physics Theorum, Jamal quoted from Khalil Gibran, Wicca ritual, Martin Luther King, Jalaluddin Rumi, from the First Epistle of Saint John and from an Ismaili ginan (spiritual). This piece was exhibited at the Roundhouse Community Centre in Van-couver in the fall of 2002; it was also shown at “Encountering Islam: Collecting, Scholarship and Contemporary Visions. Including highlights from the University Collection & work by contemporary artists” (Curated by Dr.Marcus Milwright and Dr.Astri Wright), The Maltwood Art Museum, The University of Victoria, March 28 - May 7, 2003.

2 I was standing on an avenue in Madrid with the international participants at a Philippines Studies conference (behind us, the statue of José Rizal ~ Filipino nationalist executed by the Spanish colonial regime) when cell phones from around the world began to ring to tell of the bombing of the Twin Towers. I was leaving the next day for Islamic Spain, to visit Granada, Sevilla and Cordoba, places which had celebrated the coming together of the best Muslim, Jewish and Christian minds of their time. I never dreamed what a loaded time in history would frame this particular journey.

3 But I have seen Muslim children as young as five coming home in tears after comments at school; high-school students have been bullied and beaten, and university students and adults of all ages tell stories of differential treatment from white fellow-citizens at airports, border-crossings, in day-to-day transactions and in social situations.

4 In 2001 there were an estimated 650,000 Muslims in Canada. This and the stats in the last sentence are from: <http://muslim-canada.org/muslimstats.html>.

5 The information-based site for materials on Islam I use in my teaching is: <http://islam.about.com/ > This is found at the general religion site: <http://www.about.com/religion/>, ©2006 About, Inc., A part of The New York Times Company. Another informative site is: “Muslims in the West and around the world today”: <http://www.islamfortoday.com/muslimstoday.htm>. This web-page is found at a theological site with good cultural material, published and edited by Hussein Abdulwaheed Amin, IslamForToday.com (no copyright note)1 See Bibliography at the end of the curatorial essay for some of the specific narratives about the developments of modern art beyond the Euro-American ‘west’.

6 Research for this exhibition was funded by SSHRC through the University of Victoria Internal Research Grants committee and the Office of Research Administration.

7 This is among a first handful of exhibitions of Muslim-Canadian artists in B.C. and nationally. However, what happens with ‘ethnic’ and ‘other’ contemporary art is that, for the first decade or more of its receiving any visibility at all, it is presented in non-art-specific venues (museums of anthropology, history, city museums and community centres, corporate spaces, etc). Thus the art is introduced more as ‘objects of material culture,’ conventionally studied by social scientists, not by art historians. The next challenge to meet is to get art exhibitions like the ones below into the high-status, high-visibility art museums and galleries. From this perspective, having embraced the proposal for “Seeker, Sentry, Sage”, the Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery sets an important precedent.

A brief overview of exhibitions related to this one reveals: On this coast, The Roundhouse Community Centre, the Vancouver Museum, the Surrey Art Gallery, the Burnaby Arts Council Gallery and a few others have presented smaller exhibitions including Muslim artists with an emphasis on various themes, including ‘spirit/uality’. The U.B.C. Museum of Anthropology focused on the traditional cornerstone-form of Islamic art in “The Spirit of Islam: Experiencing Islam through Calligraphy.” This wonderful exhibition, put together by Exhibition Coordinator Salma Mawani and Curator Carol Mayer, showed from October 20, 2001 to May 12, 2002. Nationally, the first big ‘ancestral exhibition’ to “Seeker, Sentry, Sage” ~ showcasing contemporary art linked to Islam ~ was “The Lands within Me: Expressions by Canadian Artists of Arab Origin” curated by Dr. Aïda Kaouk at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, October 19, 2001 to March 9, 2003. This was a first of its kind in Canada, featuring sixty-plus works in many me-dia by twenty-six artists hailing from nine countries in the Near East. Most of the artists live in Eastern Canada’s big cities: at least 14 from Montreal, 6 from Toronto or vicinity, and 3 from Ottawa; 1 is from Halifax and 2 from Vancouver (Aldin Rashid and Liliane Karnouk).

The focus was on immigrant, hybrid, plurally-rooted art by men and women of Arab descent, described as “[B]orn within plural societies, bearers of the heritage of ancient civilizations,” representing “a great diversity of languages, ethnicities, religions and cultures.” While the majority of artists were Muslim or had grown up in Muslim contexts, the word Islam was notably absent from all but a few pages among the exhibition’s many publically accessible texts (at least as available on the Internet); perhaps this was in response to 9-11 which occurred a mere five weeks before the exhibition

E n d n o t e s

Jabbar Al Janabi, Stay, 2005Mixed media on wood, 99cm X 122 cm

Sharifa Donna Webb, Window Into Another World II, 2001Acrylic on paper on canvas, 61cm X 46.5cm

54 55

18 One of the Victoria artists who relocated to Toronto has returned; one artist recently moved from Vancouver to Vancouver Island, her family still maintaining an active business in Vancouver. A year ago, one of the eleven artists living in Vancouver relocated to Turkey. Another (who left soon after we met in 2004), is just returning from two-plus years back in her native Iran; yet another just let me know she might be moving to San Francisco. As in so many of ours, but more intensively so, mobility is part of the searching and weaving past and present, in these artists’ lives ~ a process which cannot but create a new kind of consciousness that goes beyond belonging to/in a particular, singular locale or cultural mode.

19 Due to space limitations for this catalog (and though I see this as an imbalance which will most definitely be addressed in the longer future publication), I cannot address each of the artists equally.

20 For the reader who doesn’t know about Islam’s history, the two major branches of Islam are called Sunni and Shiites (Shia, Shi’a). Sunni (‘tradition’) Muslims constitute the majority of Muslims, some estimate 85% of the world’s Muslims to be Sunni, with 15% being Shia (‘followers’ of Ali’). Islam divided into these two main branches when, after Muhammad’s death, disagreement arose about who would succeed him as leader of the Muslim community (Imam). The Sunnis insisted that the caliphs (Islamic leader of the community of faithful) were the rightful leaders after Muhammad; the Shiites insisted that the Imam had to be a blood-descendant of Muhammad through the line of his daughter, Fatima, and her husband, Ali, who is a central, sacred figure to the Shia. The majority of Shia Muslims follow Twelver Shiism, based on counting twelve imams beginning with Ali. The other two main sub-branches within Shia Islam are sometimes called the Seveners (the Ismaili) and the Fivers (the Zaydites). A basic overview can be found at: <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunni> and <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shia>. However, it is vital to remember that each of these major branches have many sub-branches, each with a range of theological and cultural interpretations and practices.

21 See Sharon Elaine Thompson, “Games of Destiny,” Lapidary Journal, May 1995, pp.32-35.

22 As with contemporary artists from outside the ‘western’ world, the artists of Muslim world background who have ‘broken through’ the wall of invisibility in the contemporary western art worlds are those whose work fits current definitions of ‘good/relevant/cutting edge’ art, which, in the context of all the excellent art that is produced, is extremely narrow. Artists like Shirin Neshat and Mona Hatoum are examples of this; see the Internet for masses of hits for each or see Neshat 2005; Goldberg et al 2002; Hamburger Kunsthalle 2004.

23 Here one needs to remember that what is often, in recent centuries, seen as two separate realms in the western mode, has always been seen as one realm in many Islamic contexts.

24 Jabbar al Janabi, in personal conversation with the author, Commercial Drive, Vancouver, 25 May 2005.

25 The Farsi (Persian) word for rosary is tasbih; the Arabic word is masbahah (thanks, Pari and Jabbar, for these translations!). The Sanskrit is mala, also used in other Indian languages, including Gujarati.

26 Among the artists who had lives in their countries of origin before coming to Canada for reasons of political upheaval, many were known and successful in their fields at home and had to start from zero in a new land where everyone was a stranger and treated you as one. This loss of self and status was acutely experienced by Najat, who was a wellknown artist in Syria, a university art teacher, first, and then Chair of the Department of Fine Arts at the Al Baath University in Homs, Syria.

27 The description of Baba, the narrator’s father, in Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner (2003), is a sensitive illustration of the loss of identity, status, and context that so often accompanies the experience of being in political exile. Rich nuances of difference and similiarity mark the continuum between the states of being labeled immigrant, in diaspora, pilgrim, nomad, transnational, etc.

28 Matthew Fox, Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet, Putnam, 2004, p.143.

29 I am grateful to Dr.James P. Anglin, Associate Vice-President at the University of Victoria, for pointing this etymology out to me – and everyone present – during the opening reception of “Seeker, Sentry, Sage”. See also http://www.m-w.com/dictionary/curator.

30 Rollo May, quoted in Fox 2004, p.143.

B i b l i o g r a p h yAli, Wijdan. 1997. Modern Islamic Art: Development and Continuity. University Press of Florida.

______. 1994. “Modern Arab Art: An Overview,” in Nashashibi 1994, pp. 72-119.

Ekhtiar, Maryam and Marika Sardar, “Modern and Contemporary Art in Iran”. (Authors based at the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University.) http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/ciran/hd_ciran.htm (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000-2006)

Fox, Matthew. 2004. Creativity: Where the Divine and the Human Meet. Putnam.

Goldberg, Roselee and Giorgio Verzotti. 2002. Shirin Neshat. Charta Publishing.

Hamburger Kunsthalle et al. 2004. Mona Hatoum. Hamburger Kunsthalle; Kunsmuseum Bonn; Magasin 3 Stockholm Konsthall. Hatja Cantz Publishers.

Karnouk, Liliane. 2005. Modern Egyptian Art 1910-2003. Cairo: The American University in Cairo Press. ISBN 977-424-859-7

Lloyd, Fran, Ed. 2002. Contemporary Arab Women’s Art : Dialogues of the Present. I. B. Tauris.

Nashashibi, Salwa Mikdadi. 1994. Forces of Change: Artists of the Arab World. [An exhibition of Arab women artists] Lafayette, California: International Council for Women in the Arts, Washington D.C.: National Museum of Women in the Arts. ISBN 0-940979-26-8

Neshat, Shirin. 2005. Shirin Neshat: 2002-2005. Charta Publishing. 2005.

Northmore-Aziz, Mary. 2005. Abdul Aziz: The Artist and His Art. Bali, Indonesia Mariz Foundation.

Wright, Astri. 2005. “Worlds Apart and Gently, Intently, Meeting: Reflections on Abdul Aziz’s Art.” In Northmore-Aziz 2005, pp.128-145.

______. 1994. Soul, Spirit and Mountain: Preoccupations of Contemporary Indonesian Painters, Oxford University Press

Maltwood art museum and gallery

Box 3025 STN CSC Victoria, BC V8W 3P2 Canada

Telephone: 250-721-8298 Fax: 250-721-8997 www.maltwood.uvic.ca

Astri Wright, Editor and Guest CuratorEnquiries about exhibition: [email protected] Mason, Curator, Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery© Copyright University of Victoria 2006ISBN 1-55058-340-9

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