The opening of my exhibition at Queens Museum in May is approaching. My days are busy with lots and lots to do with barely a moment for me to properly enjoy Ramadan but I’m so thankful for this moment, alhamdullilah. It got me thinking about my last Ramadan in Cairo, when I attended the Friday congregational prayer at Masjid Al Azhar. It was a serene experience, and I basked in the baraka of the masjid. I could feel how the layered energy of this space in which people from all over the world have worshiped in for over 1,050 years vibrates from wall to wall. A few days later I visited Masjid Al Hussein which is just across the street, yet carries a certain fervor that somehow feels more mystical.
Every space carries its own energy.
I sometimes go to my studio just to be there with the energy of the space. If you’ve been to my studio space or that of other artists, you know that it’s not just a space to see artwork, but also, a space that reflects the artist’s creative process and way of being. Sometimes a studio space can be in a state where there is no “artwork” but art is coming into being (a pregnant studio?). Because the studio is a physical space, ideas can stay there for a while, be nourished, and strengthened until born into an artwork.
There are many doors to heaven – fasting being one of them; there are also many doors to enter into an artwork – form, content or materials. One thing that both fasting and art seeks to do is to bring us into more presence and awareness of our Creator and our “higher calling.” Though we’re halfway through Ramadan, I seek to carry the spirit of Ramadan with me as far as I can take it even though nothing compares to the collective energy of the communal fast in Ramadan and the specific blessings of this lunar month. Each time and each space carries its own special blessings.
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