Madih

Performance and Book, 2024

Scenography:  Cyanotype on Cotton, 130cmx150cm

Artist Book: Hand-bound using dragon scale method

In this work, the texture and symbolism of poetic language is given a spatial dimension, as metaphysical space is activated through the performance of ritual. The book gives form to a poem, written by the 12th Century Arab poet ‘Umar Ibn al-Farid, known as Zidni bi Fartil Hubb (Increase Me in an Excess of Love). The poem is part of the devotional Madih tradition, in which the Prophet Muhammad ﷺ is praised through poetry, commonly collectively sung or chanted. Having encountered the poem in utterly different contexts, in both British Muslim gatherings as well as in clips from Sudan, cast into digital space, making the book began to shorten the distance between worlds. The ritual of bakhoor lighting is a common feature of Muslim religious gatherings across these different geographies, as the perfumed air is considered to be blessed. The stage-set is designed to create a microcosm of the world of the poem (in which the poet describes being alone with the beloved). The use of cyanotype, and the fabric onto which it is printed, evokes the mystical symbolism of veiling and mirroring, which is prevalent in Islamic spirituality.