To explore disparities in cultural representation for my upcoming exhibition/residency at AKA in Saskatoon, I take inspiration from Islamic art objects. This new body of work–a portrayal of cultural hybridity–employs a variety of mediums to reinterpret the traditional functions of these artifacts, challenging the viewer to think deeply about the history of collecting, and its role in the control and colonization of cultural narratives.

During a recent residency at the Banff Center for the Arts, I experimented with prayer rug designs, working with common motifs and foliage arrangements to interrupt their conventions, spiritual significance, and aesthetic values. My use of azure references Iranian gardens and water, each essential for their purifying and healing properties (which I have explored in my previous work). In Latin, Lapis Lazuli means “stone from heaven/sky,” originating from the word Lajevard in Farsi (which is also the origin of the word “Azure”). Famously, the pigment is used in Iranian miniature paintings, ceramics, jewelry and domes in mosques to represent sky, water and heaven. In 14th- and 15th-century Italy, painters had to grind the precious stone into ultramarine pigment to portray the Virgin Mary and the holiness of certain characters in churches. The stone had traveled far from Persia along the silk road, and in my work, it becomes a route connecting past and present, the immigrant self to the future self, and mapping the transformative journey of my artistic exploration.

I see creating art as a mediation between necessity and artistic expression. In one of my works-in-progress, I enlarged a scanned image of a prayer rug until it became grainy and pixelated, then printed it in a single blue tone on letter-sized papers. By placing these printed mosaics halfway on the ground and halfway on the wall, I disrupt the traditional use of prayer rugs, which are meant to be placed on the ground facing Mecca. Growing up, seeing family members with their prayer rugs gave me a sense that each piece was a special object, connecting them spiritually during prayer. By borrowing this object and placing it differently in my work, I wanted to express my feelings of belonging or unbelonging to this metaphorical form and challenge its conventions.

I see this process as a deeper inquiry into how labour and craftsmanship contribute to the significance of art. Re-working traditional Islamic art forms and objects by employing a variety of media (ink drawing, painting, printmaking, digital print, laser cutting, and video projection), I attempt to reconsider the attachment of divineness and depth in art making. I want to highlight how the meticulous process of creating art—once celebrated in ancient Persia as a symbol of beauty, precision, and spirituality—has become obscured in today's art world.

Installation photos by Derek Sandbeck and Morgan Morgane Clément-Gagnon