Islamic Art

What is your general response to the exhibit as a whole? What is foreign about this kind of art? What is familiar?

I really love Islamic art. I studied Islamic culture and history quite a bit in high school, and I have always thought it to be very beautiful and fascinating. This exhibit held up to everything I expected. Everything was very beautiful, and of course, very precise and immaculate. I loved being able to see the deep and meaningful expressions of spirituality in the art. As far as being foreign is concerned, I think that there is obviously a huge difference between Islamic art and Western art, but there are more ways than one to interpret the word foreign. While the style and form may be somewhat different, the messages are the same. The archetypal nature of art, and in this case, religious art, is very profound, and is something that binds people across the world throughout history.

How is Islamic faith represented through this artwork? How is this different from how Christian faith is (often) represented through art?

I think that in traditional Christian art, there is a huge focus on the depiction of people, such as Jesus and the saints. Traditionally, a large part of the Christian view on art was that humans are inferior to the Divine, and thus, art should not attempt to replicate the divine nature of God. While the Christians took that thought and interpreted it to mean their art should demonstrate man's inferiority, the Muslim people decided to keep their art beautiful, but to remove any image of the human form, whether divine or mortal. I really like this sentiment in many ways, all though I do not agree that it would be sinful to ever replicate human form through art. Regardless, I find Islamic art to be very beautiful, and it amazes me to think of its complexity. I also admire their use of mathematics to form their artwork, and I admire their creative ways of expressing spirituality in art without depicting the human form.

What, if anything, do you learn about your own creative tendencies by examining this exhibit? In what ways can you be inspired by the work of these various artists?

As aforementioned, I really like the way Islamic art works around obstructions. While Christian art takes a more literal approach to depicting the divine (i.e. by simply painting Christ as a person, etc...) Islamic art portrays God through the abstract. Instead of just painting God, they paint these geometric forms which symbolize and prove God's omnipotence and power. One of my favorite movies is called The Five Obstructions, and the point of this documentary was that one director, Lars von Trier, got another director, Jorgen Leth, to remake Leth's short film The Perfect Human, 5 different times, each time with 5 different creative obstructions. Working around the obstructions forced Leth to come up with some really creative and powerful ways to carry our his ideas. With my own creative approach, I am learning to see obstacles and limitations as ways to better express and challenge my creativity. Often I think, the end result is much more effective and impressive because of the limitations. This is the same way I feel about Islamic art. It is all so beautiful and spiritually powerful, but all in different ways than the traditional methods of religious art.