Curator Ladan Akbarnia introduced the McMullen Museum of Art’s upcoming exhibit, Wonders of Creation: Art, Science, and Innovation in the Islamic World in a virtual lecture hosted by the McMullen on Tuesday.
The exhibit, open from Feb. 9 to June 1, features 20 lenders and is centered around 13th-century Islamic scholar Zakariyya al-Qazwini’s cosmography titled The Wonders of Creation and Rarities of Existence.
Akbarnia began her presentation by describing a piece that contains little boats with matchsticks inside them created by Issam Kourbaj, who used his art to tell stories of the Syrian people. He utilized the matchsticks to represent Syrian refugees.
“The artist has taken something that we might take for granted, or we might throw out, and he’s turned it into a really moving story,” Akbarnia said.
Akbarnia then discusses al-Qazwini and his significance to the exhibit in his exploration of heaven, the celestial realm, and Earth, the terrestrial realm. These two settings make up two of the four portions of the art exhibit.
The first part focuses on the pursuit of wonder and al-Qazwini’s cosmography, where he defines wonderment as “a state of perplexity that comes over a human being when he fails to understand the reason for a thing or how it affects him.”
The other three sections include the celestial realm, the terrestrial realm, and humankind.
Another piece Akbarnia describes is “Ghuraba” by Hayv Kahraman, a Kurdish-Iraqi and Swedish artist. She balances both the celestial and terrestrial worlds by using self-portraits and composite figures in her piece.
Kahraman explores the idea of something rarely seen or encountered as she combines celestial elements, such as a dragon snake, and terrestrial elements, such as palm trees.
“Rarities are wonders, but wonders aren’t necessarily rarities,” Akbarnia said.
The exhibit intertwines art with science, especially regarding astronomy and astrology. Akbarnia discusses Shams al-Din Muhammad B. Mu’Ayyad al-’Urdi, a 13th-century Islamic astronomer who argued that “through science, happiness is obtained and ranks are elevated.”
Akbarnia explained that the word “science” also encompasses general knowledge in Arabic. Al-’Urdi argues that knowledge is to be appreciated, and it is important to ask questions and learn new things to get closer to God.
Akbarnia then discussed Islam and the thread of pieces featuring words of the Quran throughout the exhibit. She used three examples to show the diversity of Islamic tradition, including a Quran from the Mongol period in Iran, an 18th-century Chinese Quran, and an unfound West African Quran.
Islamic history also contains many technological advancements. In his cosmology, al-Qazwini describes the process of making astrolabes, which people used to calculate the position of celestial objects. Two life-sized replicas of an Iranian astrolabe will be on display as part of the exhibit.
In the realm of technological accomplishments, Pantea Karimi, an Iranian artist, used laser-cut images of plants from medieval herbals in her work, emphasizing the importance of medicine and protection.
Akbarnia concluded her presentation by discussing the importance of crafts and al-Qazwini’s argument that artisans have different and valuable skills that join together to support humanity.
“Cities contain artisans just as the body contains limbs and faculties,” al-Qazwini said. “Just as the faculties and limbs all assist each other so that the body can function correctly, so too do artisans in a city cooperate with each other so that the city can function properly.”
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