Falak Screen
The departure point for Falak is a verse in Surah Al Anbiya in the Holy Quran: “And it is He who created the night and the day and the sun and the moon; all [heavenly bodies] in an orbit are swimming.” Falak, meaning cosmos, is rooted in the influence and impact of a constellation of stars, which has deep historical and contemporary significance in Islam and across the Islamic world. The repetition of the hexagonal shape begets the idea of rotation around the unit itself, as though it were orbiting around a constellation and circumambulating.
The complexity of the pattern highlights the minimalism of the design of the work itself: a single, repeated geometric shape. This mashrabiyya-like aesthetic featuring several openings through overlapping hexagons brings to mind the notion of public versus private. Featuring camel leather – a nod to the artist’s Emirati heritage – Falak asks to be reconfigured and personalised to adapt to change and choice, very much like the region it represents and the genre of art it relates to.
Material: Camel Leather, Copper pegs and Metal structureDimensions: 220x210 cm
Year: 2019