THE BIRTH | Acrylic and Enamel on Wood |120 cm * 120 cm

The work is inspired by the Big Bang theory of the creation of the universe. Although there are three (relevant) Quranic elements woven into the painting, it is the scientific model which leads. I will talk of one motif: the dot.

The purest point in the painting is the yellow dot at its centre. All art and physics: the four forces, their messenger particles, time – it’s one and undifferentiated. All physics and information is united into this one hot bubble. The dot is of a dual nature – word given substance. Here is the cosmic singularity on the precipice of exploding into existence. Here also is the last phoneme of a verb – Be – written in Arabic. It says: Kun.

Without the dot, the word assumes a sound made in another language, Urdu. It is of a “koongh” sound: unfocussed and in a limbo. The undecided possibilities lie inside the symmetrical belly of a letter, neither here nor there. It is the dot which decisively makes the tip of a hovering tongue press against the roof of a mouth. It focuses the ‘Koongh” into a “Kun”. It collects the infinite, intangible cloud of possibilities and condenses them into one, single, drop.

UM.