What exactly is the artwork going to be?

At the second JAMmART brainstorming session we had 15 participants: Betsy Miller, Seema Khan, Nabila Altafullah, Paul Falcon, Marsha Goldfine, Shela Qamer, Sabir Rahman, Shirley Waxman, Bonnie Korr, Beyhan Trock, Gale Pressman, Tamah Graber, Bano Makhdoom, Amna Ibrahim, and Rehana Raza. We welcomed the four newest members to the group and introduced ourselves, the media in which we work, and our expectations of the project. It soon became clear that we needed to define what it is we want the piece to mean and express. Is the goal to represent all of humanity? Is the goal to speak of the Jewish and Muslim faiths individually, highlighting our differences as well as what we have in common? Should the center be an interweaving and intertwining of what we share? Should one side represent Judaism and the other side Islam, coming together in the middle. We want the central message to be about peace, cooperation, friendship, spirituality, acceptance, and what we share in common. The discussion moved into important symbols from each faith. Common to both religions are elements of nature: water, sky, earth, trees, light. One of the strongest common elements is that of knowledge, learning, education. Calligraphy can pull the whole piece together at the center with both Arabic and Hebrew words interweaving. The only conclusion we were able to come to is that the piece will be composed of seven panels. From our previous meeting, we determined that the number seven is very important to both religions. The piece must be transportable and flexible so it may be installed in a variety of spaces that have a variety of limitations. It should have the ability of being flat for some venues. Many of us liked the idea of it being three dimensional so that it can be experiential and can be walked through. We decided that before we can determine what the structure and medium will be, the first step is to decide on the message. In order to come to some kind of consensus, we decided that everyone needs to answer the following questions before we meet next: 1) What do I want the artwork’s message to be? 2) What elements/symbols from my religion do I want to see included? 3) What do I want to work on (in terms of medium and theme)? Although some of us were frustrated at not agreeing upon the artwork yet, we have begun to form personal bonds and connections. The process of learning about each other is as important to the project as the final product, if not more so. Our next meeting is scheduled for January 11, 2009.