Jaali III: hum kay therey ajnabi (we, who remain strangers)

“ham key therey ajanabi” – Faiz Ahmad Faiz

2024

Hand-cut and laser-cut screens, broken and reassembled, enamel paint, 96” x 96” x 144”

James Gallery Institute for Art
CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY

how much blood spilt will it take
for us to know,
that too many people have died.

how many deaths will it take to know,
that the spirit of resilience will still live on.

This Jaali design is composed within the boundaries of a square or points of the compass, with triangles superimposed on in it. From it rises the spine, needle, pillar of a vortex like cloud spiraling above a circular center. An energy vortex soaring and expanding, above and outwards, from the earth in a circular flow. A cosmic portal, a portal into spiritual dimensions, into the unseen, transcending space, and time. Activating patterns of energy, connecting fragmented parts into new harmonious wholes. The overlay of the sacred geometric shapes that form the building blocks of the universe, into a structure connecting what is above, below, and within.

After those many encounters, that easy
intimacy, we are strangers now –
After how many meetings will we be that
close again?

When will we again see a spring of
unstained green?
After how many rains will the bloodstains
be washed away?

So relentless was the end of love, so
heartless –
After the nights of tenderness, the dawns
were pitiless, so pitiless.

And so crushed was the heart that
though it wished it found no chance –
after the entreaties, after the despair —
for us to quarrel once again as old
friends.

— Faiz Ahmad Faiz, “Upon Return from Dhaka,” 1974

Jaali explores the possibility of transcending the material realm through a perforation of matter. Carved screens in continuous pattern evoke infinity. Broken parts reform into new unified wholes. Recurring patterns from nature and Sacred Geometric forms allow the work to engage the eternal.

The structures in Jaali III recall capillary networks in the human body, blood spilled and shed, metamorphosizing into blooming patterns of hope. They recall bloodlines and ancestral histories, sacrifice and redemption, life and death, pain, healing, and finally transcendence.

Rhea Karam and Sarah Ahmad, Installation view, photo credit- Brad Farwell

Jaali series explores the possibility of transcending the material realm through a perforation of the matter in the screen carvings and through continuous patterns expressing infinity and unity. Broken parts reform into new unified wholes, ascending to higher states of being, connecting with spiritual energy within the material forms. The work engages the eternal as it both transcends and exists within the transient, the temporal. Recurring patterns, from nature and in Sacred Geometry, express the [meta]physical reality in which we live. The inherent unity underlying existence.

This Jaali installation is created entirely from disparate fragments left over from my 2012–13 Jaali installations with screens carved in Islamic geometric patterns. As the life I had built as an immigrant to the United States fell apart, I broke the screens I had designed, reassembling them into new structures. At a time of trauma and loss, the fragmented forms reunited into novel reconfigurations were metaphors for life rebuilt. New structures created from past ruins, resurrection from destruction, evoking hope, vision for a future, transcendence. Repainted and reassembled, they are repurposed again through multiple lives into new forms. It’s a process of recovery, transformation, manifesting new futures.

Materials serving as repositories, concealing, and preserving histories. The structures in Jaali recall capillary networks in the human body, blood spilled and shed, metamorphosizing into blooming patterns of hope. Alluding to bloodlines and ancestral histories, sacrifice and redemption, life and death, pain, and healing, and finally transcendence as the pieces break free, floating away in a space of their own, filtering light.

© 2014-2024 Sarah Ahmad. All Rights Reserved.