Bodies of Light – including Islam in a New Zealand aesthetic landscape

These five blogs are an attempt to do some justice to, Ko rātou, ko tātou | On Other-ness, on us-ness, an exhibition that few individuals were able to see due to the gallery being closed because of COVID-19, on March 15, and from March 23 until mid May. The impetus for this exhibition, was my own experiences a year previously, following the Christchurch Mosque massacres. I realised how little experience many empathetic New Zealanders had of Islam. I am a Bahai, not a Muslim, but I have some insight into the diverse cultures of Islam because, over the decades, I, like many Bahais have engaged with Muslims and the Islamic worlds.

I lived in Muslim-dominated neighbourhoods in the Netherlands for 19 years and worked with mosques and Muslim shop owners in relatively conservative communities in two exhibitions that I curated. These aimed at creating dialogues between contemporary art and aspects of the diversity of Islam. With this background, I started work on developing a show intended to give some insights into Islam, utilizing works by contemporary New Zealand artists as the medium. I am grateful to Wendy Harsant, then manager of NorthArt, for accepting my pitch, and to my co-curator,
Salama Moata McNamara for her help in the exhibition.

Some of the works by 24 artists (listed here) were aesthetic responses to the 2019 Christchurch mosque massacres while others were re-contextualizations, or responses to the Qur’an and the diverse cultures and histories of Islamic worlds. A general aim here was to include Islam in a New Zealand aesthetic landscape, and to see what changes.

I will focus here on nine works in the show, and write separate blogs on the other works in the three gallery spaces.

Five texts in Arabic were positioned high on the walls around the front gallery to re-contextualize the adjacent artworks. One of these texts “Hijārat” (the stones), near Phil Dadson’s video and soundpiece, “Conference of Stones” was accompanied by two excerpts from the Qur’an: “There is not an animal on earth, no bird flying on wings, but they are communities like you.” (6:38) Even the stones “fall down for fear of God” (2:74). Both texts, and the video and soundscape, bring focus to the natural world as a source for understanding. The Qur’an refers to communities in the animal world, while the reference to stones could be read as either a metaphor for the hardened self (“your hearts were hardened”, 2:74) or as the omnipotence of Allah because even stones are moved.

When I first watched the video it reminded me of the poem “The conference of the birds,” by Persian Sufi poet Farid ud-Din Attar (c. 1145 – c. 1221) where diverse birds, each with a differing human-like weakness, seek to find a leader. After tests and journeys, thirty birds survive and discover that collectively their diverse traits form something greater.

The ‘conference’ in the poem takes the form of journeys and challenges penned in allegory with multiple meanings, while in the video the ‘conference’ is the distinctive voices of handheld tapping stones collected by the artist from locations in diverse countries. The sonics of these stones were intended to resonate throughout the gallery like ripples and then beyond into the middle gallery to merge with the more abstracted and melodic soundscape from the third gallery, by Los Angeles based omposer and musician, Jessika Kenney.

On the wall adjacent to the video, Passion I and Passion II by Brenda Liddiard function as abstract interludes in earthy tones with surfaces reminiscent of rugged landscapes. The delicate ink drawing, A Matter of Faith, by Fiona Lee Graham, of a nun engaged in hoeing seems to speak of a history of relationship with the land as does the woven kete (basket), Kete Muka Tuatahi (First Flax Fibre Basket) by Christina Hurihia Wirihana. Wirihana’s masterly work twists the flax back and forth, contrasting the dull underside against the top side of the flax to create the Inanga (whitebait) design. Like the citation in the Qur’an, the natural world is given a focus for human enlightenment. The patterns of this kete, created purely by twisting and turning, reflect the communities of tiny whitebait wriggling upstream against the odds.

Across from the video stands Wake, a customized mini-watertank by Jeff Thomson. The form speaks of containment, but on closer inspection it is about the impossibility of this. Numerous holes perforate the sides and bottom of the tank. These are not immediately visible because they match the silkscreened watery patterns and are therefore masked. These patterns are the ‘wake’ in the title: signs that something no longer present has passed by.

Inside this water tank are chalked floating Arabic letters, Huroof e Muqataat (The Disconnected Letters) by Sen McGlinn. This refers to the letter sequences called “Huroof e Muqataat” that begin 29 of the 114 chapters of the Qur’an. When reciting these Surahs (Chapters), these letters are pronounced as single letters, not formed into words. They are not semantic units of meaning but serve as sound – or as form if the person is reading – as a mystical or mysterious element to this Holy Book. McGlinn chose these letters to recontextualize this sculpture as a visualization for a sea of meaning that cannot be grasped: the ineffable. The absurdity of water containing water becomes a metaphor for the enigmatic wake left by a presence.


The end gallery installation, Haykal Al Noor (Bodies of Light) by Narjis Mirza consists of projections of letters falling down twelve translucent columns of silk. Akin to the “Huroof e Muqataat” of the Qur’an, these letters or letter compositions do not form words. Each letter or combination becomes visible as it strikes the top folds of fabric and then descends to rest in a composition of other letters in the ancient Kufic font. This font is still used for permanent commemorative plaques and hence is generally associated with stability, the semantic and the architectural. Mirza’s use of this font as illuminated descending non-semantic form changes this context to the ephemeral, physical and conceptual. These letter-bodies are not prescriptive but are signs of the abstracted mystical or otherworldly.
Mirza is enrolled in a PhD at AUT (Auckland University of Technology) and is influenced by the 20th century Huroofiya Art Movement where Arabic calligraphy is deconstructed and abstracted from its more literal usage. Some schools within this movement also focus on symbolic meanings in the cosmos for these letters. Her interactive installations are practice-based research into philosophical notions of light, language and art and this installation is part of her research. The human presence is a vital part of this installation: the viewer is invited to move between the diaphanous columns.

Projections of these illuminated letters are intended to fall on the visitors’ bodies as well as onto the columns of delicate fabric so that the word ‘Haykal’ (Bodies) in title references both the Arabic letters and the presence of the viewer, whether as the body-self inside the installation, or as observer watching others as forms, continually shaping these projections. The bodies of the visitors complete the intention of this site-specific installation which here, exists in parallel with the soundpiece, Pamor performed and composed by Jessika Kenney. ‘Pamor’ refers to metallurgical patterns in ritual weapons. The sung syllables are abstracted from a Javanese prayer attributed to Sunan Kalijaga, one of the nine Sufis who brought Islam to Java over five centuries ago.

 

A list of the 24 artists in this exhibition | Next blog on this exhibition >>

 
About these 8 artists

Brenda Liddiard is a visual artist and singer songwriter/musician based in Auckland, Aotearoa | New Zealand. She has been exhibiting her paintings since 2008. brendaliddiard.co.nz, and is co-founder of the fundraising art organisation, Art for Change (www.artforchange.net).

Christina Hurihia Wirihana, based in the Bay of Plenty, Aotearoa | New Zealand, is a weaver of Te Arawa, Ngāti Maniapoto, Ngāti Pikiao, Ngāti Rangiunora, Ngāti Raukawa, Tainui descent. Wirihana is the Chairperson of Te Roopu Raranga Whatu o Aotearoa (National Collective of Māori Weavers in New Zealand). In 2014 this collective of weavers exhibited 49 tukutuku panels in Kāhui Raranga: The Art of Tukutuku at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. These panels are to be installed early 2015 at the Headquarters of the United Nations in New York. In 2003 Wirihana received Te Tohu Toi Kē from Te Waka Toi Creative New Zealand for making a positive development within Māori arts. See: wikipedia.org/wiki/Christina_Wirihana

Fiona Lee Graham, based in Auckland, completed a Bachelor Degree in Design and Visual Art, majoring in Painting, at the Unitec, Auckland, in 2010. See: thegreyplace.nz/artists/fiona-lee-graham

Jessika Kenney, based in Los Angeles, U.S.A. is an experimental vocalist, composer, and teacher. She is most known for her performances of Indonesian vocal music (sindhenan), and Persian vocal music (radifs), as well as for her compositions drawing on elements of both. See her discography – jessikakenney.com

Jeff Thomson based in Helensville, Aotearoa / New Zealand is known for his sculptures and site-specific installations using corrugated iron as his main medium. His sculptures range from the well-crafted and iconic, such as his suite of New Zealand native birds, to the conceptual, such as his cut and corrugated ironing boards, or the add-ons he created for the roofs of houses scattered throughout the city of Whanganui, to the quirky, such as his water tanks, some filled with water, peep holes and motors. jeffthomson.co.nz

Narjis Mirza, born in Pakistan and now based in Sydney, Australia, is an installation artist. Her research examines the confluence of eastern philosophy with virtual reality, highlighting the transcendent philosophy of Persian philosopher Mulla Sadra (1571–1636). She completed her Master’s degree in Media and Design from Bilkent University Ankara, Turkey, after a Bachelor’s in Fine Arts with distinction at the National College of Arts in Pakistan. She is currently undertaking a PhD at the Auckland University of Technology. narjismirza.com

Phil Dadson, based in Auckland, Aotearoa / New Zealand, is a video & sound artist with a transdisciplinary practice including building and performing with experimental musical instruments, sound sculptures, digital media, music compositions, graphic scores and drawings. Moving image and foregrounding sound has been a feature of his practice since the early 70s, referencing the body, land, nature, and the human condition. He also founded the music/performance group, From Scratch (1974 – 2004). Awards & residencies include: US Fulbright 1991, NZ Arts Foundation Artist Laureate 2001, Antarctic Artist Fellowship 2003, ONZM 2005, Sankriti residency (India 2007), Artist Cinema commission 2010, Wallace Arts Trust Jury award 2011. thearts.co.nz/artists/phil-dadson

Sen McGlinn, born in Christchurch, Aotearoa / New Zealand has recently returned to live in the Far North after living in the Netherlands for almost 30 years. He has a Master’s in Islamic Studies from the University of Leiden, The Netherlands, where he is working on a PhD. He has authored and co-authored a number of books in Persian Literature & Iranian Studies. He has exhibited in sculpture parks and galleries since the early 90s. sculpturebysen.wordpress.com

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