Nectar in a Sieve

I am exhibiting my paper works  at Gallery Sarah, Muscat, this month in a joint exhibition "Nectar in a Sieve" . The works on show deal with illusions, fragility and transformation .These works create  alternate universes which reconcile the differences between dreams and reality and also  explore the tentative bindings between nature and culture. The title of the exhibition "Nectar in a Sieve", suggests the rich , yet illusory nature of life .Nectar is the potion of immortality but if placed inside a sieve , would drain out and get lost forever.The works on show are delicate , subtle, imaginative and ephemeral. 

Fellow artist Gabriella Gorbedi has used frankincense as a material to craft organic forms that seem alive and growing.You want to reach out and touch them! Frankincense is a tree sap derivative with healing properties .Frankincense trees are cultivated in the southern coast of Oman, in the Dhofar and Salalah regions.The  scent of frankincense is deeply entrenched in the culture of Oman. It is  predominantly burnt in incense burners not only in this country but other countries in the Middle East, to  fill local  households with a purifying fragrance or to perfume hair and clothes. 

Gabriella's frankincense , thread
and copper wire sculpture

Gabriella 's palm flower, frankinscense and copper wire sculptures

Geometric Patterns in Islamic art

In Islamic art, the spiritual world is regarded as being reflected in nature through geometry and rhythm. Hence, Islamic artists used geometry as an aid to raise their spiritual understanding as well as that of the viewer’s.

Muslim intellectuals recognized in geometry the unifying intermediary between the material and the spiritual world. These patterns may be seen as symbolizing the Islamic principles of ‘Tawhid’ (the unity of all things) and ‘Mizan’ (order and balance), which are the laws of creation in Islam.Tessellations are one of the major components of Islamic art. Islamic artists mastered regular division of plane using, in particular, circles on triangular or square grids, because the circle – which has no beginning and no end and thus symbolizes infinity – was considered to be the most perfect geometric form. In mosques, where a wealth of these geometric patterns can be found, one can contemplate the infinity of the Universe  simply by looking at the walls or the ceilings. In short, these geometric forms express Islamic artists’ fascination with mathematics as a metaphor for divine order and presence.

Using imagery from this region, I  constructed my own unique "Mashrabiya" patterns. "Mashrabiyas" are the highly intricate lattice screens on facades of buildings, either painstakenly carved out of wood or molded  cement.I have been intrigued by these patterns and wanted to translate these designs made from  heavy, solid materials like wood and concrete onto something very delicate and frail like paper.

Mashrabiya-Inspiration

I was also inspired by Dutch graphic artist M.C.Escher's geometric drawings .Escher was influenced by Islamic tesellations on the tiles of Alhambra, a palace and fortress complex in Spain and demonstrated an intuitive understanding of mathematical order and symmetry. 

M. C> Escher's  geometric work was informed by tessellations on tiles like this in the Islamic palaces of  Alhambra, Spain

M.C. Escher :Fish (No. 55), inks, pencil, watercolour, 1942

I used the symmetries of geometric designs to shape harmony from an otherwise discordant arrangement of forms.From a distance, my works appear to be  detailed , lacelike  designs but a closer inspection reveals a new perspective. The visual landscape is proliferated by iterative logarithms of  ubiquitous elements embedded in the Middle Eastern culture ( attar bottles, niquabs,  shishas, Sufi dervish dances, hair dances by women on festive occasions) or topography ( desert rose, mountain goats, falcons, camels or date palm trees).I tried to notice details and things around me that are too minute or too obvious and invariably taken for granted.

Most works have been lasercut from acid free paper, placed in 3D box frames with  white or coloured mount cards as  backgrounds. Due to the depth in the work the cut paper cast shadows onto the backgrounds.

Attar bottle mashrabiya 1

Attar bottle mashrabiya 2

Mashrabiya

Mashrabiya 2

Mashrabiya 3

Niquab mashrabiya

After these initial cutouts of abstract shapes and geometric forms, I decided to include human figures and objects and arrange them symmetrically in  mashrabiya-like formats.I sketched my ideas in pen and ink and am sharing a few here.

What I found interesting in this series is the use of negative space. What was subtracted(cut out) from paper assumed greater significance than what was left behind.I usually aim to remove the unnecessary parts in my cut outs but here I did just the opposite.I as progressed, the final works looked like this.

Whirling Dervish 1

Whirling Dervish 2

Shisha

Emra

Desert Rose

Dance

Balloon Boys

Attar Bottles

Prayer 1

Falcon Boys

Falconry

Palm Trees

Falcons

Camels

For the next few cutouts I collected and used the ornate, gold and white  paper found inside all the catalogues of concerts in the Royal Opera House, Muscat, as the background paper. In this way,something vaguely familiar from this city crept into my works. The paper represents the tradition of promoting beauty, art and culture in this Sultanate.

My papercut works Emra and Emra1 were inspired by one of renowned Emirati artist Maitha Demaithan's compelling scanography work "Blossom".I played with the silhouette of her iconic image.

Maitha Demaithan's  "Blossom" 2009 , Scanography

Falcon boy

Dance2

Falconry1

Mountain Goats

Prayer

Khanjars

Palm Trees1

Turtles

Lamps-: Fish, Frankincense, Birds, One with the Universe1, One with the Universe 2

One with the Universe -Detail

One with the Universe

Same Different-:Handcut paper, hand stitched, embossed

Embossing-Detail

Embossing -Detail

Embossing -Detail

My works in "Nectar in a Sieve" are different my earlier works because they do not entail storytelling.Usually my works are layered,thought provoking , mildly unsettling and personal in nature  while these cutouts are impersonal and do not contain any hidden agenda . They were born out of my experience of living in the Middle East for the past 8 years rather than my internal moments,though  like my other works, they do hold a certain element of surprise. 

 I am  satisfied with this series because of a number of firsts for me as an artist. I used technology(laser machine) instead of cutting everything out with a Xacto knife and therefore could create large, very precise, perfectly  symmetrical works in a shorter span of time.I also attempted playing with light in my paper lamps. Some of the lamps were hand cut, while for others I used  the shadows of hand painted cutouts. I explored the embossing technique  in my piece "Same Different" which was really instinctive, direct and hands on.I cut 60 paper niquabs , embossed on them,hand stitched them together with gold embroidery thread found in souks and used to embroider womens' clothes .In this piece and each niquab has a different object embossed on it.

There is a  pristine, ethereal quality to the exhibition because of the display of white paper and frankincense works on white gallery walls. An air of choreographed stillness prevails in the exhibition space.