Malay Gardens in UAE

As part of the 20th edition of the Sharjah Islamic Art Festival, Sulaiman Esa has been chosen to represent Malaysia featuring his Garden of Mystery series as well as Garden of Bliss series.

The annual Islamic Arts Festival began in 1998 with the goal of representing contemporary Islamic art through the selection of art projects from all over the world. This edition brings together more than thirty international art pratitioners, writers and thinkers.

For more details : http://www.sdc.gov.ae/en/Content/48

Both Garden series represent an attempt to create an alternative surface derived from the Malay world. The handmade paper as a base intertwined with colourful woven yarns lends to the creation of dynamic geometric patterns embellished with central mandala designs signifying the concept of unity in diversity as discerned in the Garden of Bliss series. Paradisical garden, Jannah, generally indicates the final abode of the righteous and the believers in Islamic belief.  While in Garden Mystery IV, the medallion designs in this piece echo the prayer rug, sajdah, upon which a Muslim kneels in prayer. It is within this sacred space that a Muslim ascends by the rhythm of his prayer to that ‘paradisical plane’ where ‘the Blessed one, eternally abide’. In both series, ‘craft art’ is deliberately introduced into the realm of ‘fine art’ to stress my belief that the two cannot be separated as the Western tradition supposes.