The Structure for the Artwork

We met again, as planned on Sunday February 22, 2009. Before beginning the meeting, Sabir invited us all (including spouses) to an interfaith dinner and event to take place at the Muslim Community Center in Silver Spring. It will take place on Sunday March 8 at 5 pm.

We all admired the model that Paul prepared of the structure of the piece. After some discussion we agreed that this is the form we want it to be in and so the structure is set! The content and design is still to be worked on. The overall size is approximately 25 feet long, 8 feet high at the center and approximately 20 inches in depth. There will be 18 main surfaces to work upon. These do not include tops and edges. We agreed upon the delegation of the 18 panels in terms of being Jewish, Muslim or shared. The center panel will be cylindrical and will lend itself to being wrapped in fabric. It will be a shared panel of Muslim and Jewish symbols and ideals. The focus will be on what we have in common in the center panel. The two structures next to the cylinder may have plexiglass. If we want to include plexi we’ll need to fundraise for it. We looked at designs that Marsha, Shela, Amna, Shirley and Nabila prepared. Both Shirley’s and Marsha’s had images of trees. Nabila’s showed the olive tree, a minaret and mosque and a moon. Amna’s designs included palm trees and a scene of the Kaaba and hajj. Shela had ceramic tiles with scenes of domes, minarets, flowers, and trees. We discussed the idea of running calligraphy along the edges. Calligraphy can be a key part of many of the panels. We may leave one of the 18 surfaces available for a written statement about the creation and process of the piece. There is some concern that it may affect the art. We’ll decide upon that later but for now the idea is still on the table.

We decided that the next step is to come up with sketches for content. We’ll start with two design teams, one Jewish and one Muslim. Each team will come up with black and white sketches for the panels. Shela will lead the Muslim design team and Marsha will lead the Jewish design team. Shirley and Marsha are thinking that the Jewish panels will focus on the cycle of the year and holidays. Shela repeated what the Muslim artists stated last time that the main focus will be the Surah, Ar-Rachman, which can include images of stars, moon, light, nature, trees. For the shared panels, everyone should come up with lists of symbols and ideals that should be part of the shared panels. Paul will bring large paper to the next meeting and we can begin to sketch some of the ideas. One idea that emerged is that of showing side by side two important related texts in both Hebrew and Arabic.

We will keep thinking about venues to display the piece. It will be a traveling exhibition and can be constructed by Paul to be very accommodating to travel. Women’s Museum of Art, DCJCC, Rockville Court House, Strathmore, and the World Bank are all possible venues. Once the piece is more established, we can begin to approach the venues. “Build it and they will come” -hopefully.

We had a wonderful food break, which included a homemade Halva prepared by Shela, homemade cheese bread by Amna, bagels courtesy of Marsha, and tea. Our next meeting will be Sunday April 19th. Once again, the time flew by and we're looking forward to the next meeting to continue the lively and exciting discussion.