Stepping Outside Myself

The idea for this mosaic was born out of the lecture by András Riedlmayer and Michael Sells’ article “Erasing Culture”. The article and lecture were vivid, tragic reminders of how Muslims of different communities and different times interpret art and religion differently. The variety of beliefs and art forms among different Muslim communities has been a recurring theme of this course. Ornate mosques that implicitly say “God is beauty” or unadorned white washed walls? Oral Quran elaborate art or simple recitation? Do graveyards, shrines, and intercessory figures offend a monotheistic god? Figural representation or none?

The destruction of monuments, graveyards, and mosques was a tragic example of that diversity. Within the Wahhabi sect, libraries, tombs, and mosques are viewed as potential idols (Sells). As such, these precious sites are being destroyed by a minority of the very religion that built the sites, despite the fact that most Muslims accept Sufi mystical practices and do not see these sites as idols. I found the devastation even more tragic because it contrasts so sharply with the beauty created, such as that shown in “Mirror of an Invisible World”.  In other times and places, different subgroups within Islam have viewed creating beautiful sites as alluding to God and his beauty in the created world.

This stunning juxtaposition of beliefs within one religion fascinates me. I wanted to combine these two extremes of creating and destroying great, historic art. I highlight the diversity of beliefs by putting side by side the beauty and devastation rising out of those beliefs.  I chose to do so in the Islamic art form of a mosaic, mingling images of created and destroyed art in a geometric pattern. The gold and blue images portray creations within Islamic communities, mostly mosques. The black and white images show destroyed monuments and mosques or their former sites.

All images courtesy of Google Image search