A Wondrous Exhibition in Balboa Park

 By Lonnie Burstein Hewitt. Photos by Maurice Hewitt.

 

A stunning wool and silk carpet by Faig Ahmed, an internationally renowned contemporary artist in Azerbaijan who combines his own distinctive stylings with traditional weaving techniques.

 Wonders of Creation: Art, Science, and Innovation in the Islamic World is  truly a wondrous exhibition based on a text by a 13th-century Islamic author-- Zakariyya ibn Muhammad al-Qazwini--who survived two Mongol invasions and yet invited his readers to contemplate the world’s wonders.

Organized by Ladan Akbarnia, Curator of South Asian and Islamic Art at SDMA, Wonders of Creation is part of the Getty Foundation’s PST Art initiative which this year has the theme “When Art and Science Collide” and has over 70 SoCal cultural institutions participating.

For this special exhibition, SDMA gathered over 200 extraordinary pieces from the wider Islamic world, including North Africa, Spain, the Middle East, and Central, South and Southeast Asia. Covering thirteen centuries of art and craft, it’s a great opportunity to explore these parts of the world through new eyes.

Two folios from the Blue Quran. Iraq, 9th-10th century.

Demons in Wild Landscape.  India, 1600.

Incense burner. Iran, 12th-13th century.

Untitled “el sokareya” by Sherin Guirguis, a contemporary Egyptian-American artist, born in Luxor, Egypt, based in Los Angeles.

The Zodiac Man. Iran, 19th century.

Woman’s Headdress. Central Asia, Turkmen, 18th century.

 

An amazing amount of scholarship went into the creation of Wonders, which also includes commissioned works by contemporary artists and craftsmen who have found their own ways of portraying their worlds.  

Folding Gardens, A Stained Memory by Pantea Karimi, born in Shiraz, Iran, based in San Jose, CA. “This piece is a response to my childhood in the time of the 1979 Iranian Revolution,” she told us. “I actually was injured in one of the protests, and my blood stained the floor…the red segment here is my bloodstain.” Step close to the piece to experience it fully and be showered with the sounds of her strangely soothing recording.

Brass standards carried in religious processions. India, late 17th-early 18th century.

 Surah Al-Tur verses 48 and 49, by Fouad Kouichi Honda, a contemporary Japanese calligrapher famed for his Arabic calligraphy. This piece was donated to SDMA by the Islamic Arts Museum Malaysia as a collaborative gesture.

Detail of Nation with Wings, from a manuscript of “The Wonders of Creation and the Rarities of Existence”. India, circa 1650-1700.

One on One, by Timo Nasseri, a multimedia German/Iranian artist born and based in Berlin who explores the aesthetics of Arabic writing in this piece.

For Wonders of Creation, Timo Nasseri came to SDMA to re-create a site-specific version of Florenz-Bagdad, a display he originally created for several walls of a Vienna gallery in 2016, inspired by a book about Renaissance art and Arab science. Referencing a traditional Persian architectural feature in mosques, shrines and palaces that uses small, hand-cut pieces to move and reflect light, he added mirrors to the mix, and in 2017 did a room-size installation for the Maraya Art Center in the United Arab Emirates. He has called this “a space that dissolves spatial boundaries” and you have the good fortune to be able to walk in and experience it here.

Try to come at less crowded times so that you can spend more than a few moments with the pieces that catch your eye. Taking time to contemplate what you see is very rewarding and you’ll have a deeper, more personal experience of the treasures on view.

Wonders of Creation: Art, Science, and Innovation in the Islamic World 
September 7, 2024-January 5, 2025
San Diego Museum of Art (SDMA)
1450 El Prado, Balboa Park

 HOURS: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday 10-5, Sunday 12-5.
Closed Wednesday. $5 surcharge on admission to this special exhibition.
619-232-7931. 

Lonnie Burstein Hewitt is an award-winning author/lyricist/playwright who has been writing about arts and lifestyles in San Diego County for over a dozen years. You can reach her at hew2@sbcglobal.net. 

 

Other Pacific Standard Time: Art and Science Collide exhibitions to watch for in this column are:

Mingei International Museum: Blue Gold: The Art and Science of Indigo  September 14, 2024 to March 16 2025

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego: For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability on view from September 19, 2024 to February 2, 2025.

Oceanside Museum of Art: Transformative Currents: Art And Action In The Pacific Ocean through Jan 19, 2025.