We had our weekly book-reading session tonight at an art exhibition. It was the first solo exhibition by one of our group members and we had the privilege of having the whole gallery to ourselves. Masya-Allah! I felt proud being there and I am sure the rest of the birds too.We had a tour of the exhibition with a personal briefing by the artist himself and the curator, who is also a member of our reading group. What a privilege indeed! Instead of reading our book tonight, we discussed about the concept of the exhibition, the art pieces and how it relate to our lifes. I thought it was beautiful and a really fresh approach to learning. Congratulations to all who were there today!
Art is a means of organising experience into an ordered form. The experience thus translated and expressed as a sculpture, painting, song or poem - can then come to life again in the consciousness of the artist and of other people who saw the art. It may truly be said that only when this sharing took place has a work of art been fully realised.
Art's purpose is to inspire us, stir emotions within, and to communicate with the viewer - thus the work of art and the viewer begins to "interact", and is engaged in a "dialogue". The "conversations" one has with a particular piece of art is hence different with the "conversations" that same piece of art is held by another person.
Such "communication" logically leads us to be a more sensitive, more aware, more embracing and more appreciative person (of ourselves and of others around us) when that piece of art begins to speak to us and when it begins to engage us. As a result, we become a better person, someone who is more aware of himself and of his environment - and this must transform us to be that person.
Theologically, an artist captures the beauty of creation in any given moment through his art, and ultimately, it reminds us of the greatness of The Almighty of the beauty in and of His Creations - mostly we took for granted otherwise. So we remain grateful and be reminded of Him, and this results in Him "remembering" us more profoundly than we can imagine. And this circle of blessings gets deeper as our remembrance of Him becomes more constant and more pronounced to ourselves. SubhanAllah!
I hope my other students in this class will believe more in themselves and fly their wings with the talents that they have - for our limits are set only by ourselves.
I further pray that this session was beneficial and art's purpose has left that mark in their lives.
Amin.
14 comments:
Thanks for trusting us to organise the activity today. Glad that you enjoy it as much as we enjoy it.
Each breath,
Each move,
Each jerk
Each dot
Each stroke,
Each line,
Each squiggle,
Each splash of colour
on the canvas,
create a mark.
No matter how big or small
it still a mark nevertheless.
True ... and each of those you mentioned is our own mark of our own existence - not his or hers, by the Grace of God.
So we should be proud of it ... and remain eternally grateful to Him.
The dot intrigues me cus we start and end with a dot when we write, paint and sketch. In fact, lines are actually made of dots. :-)
My 2 cents.
Thanx Erzan & Rudy for organising the session. I personally enjoyed it very much.
The session had a very profound meaning to me. Thank U Ustaz as well for the nicely done "debrief" to wrap-up the session. =)
Thank you all for the reminder to appreciate the little things or moments in life that make up our existence. Thank you for unlocking hidden moments that have been pushed to the back of the minds - pleasant or not, it gives perspective when looked at the 2nd or 3rd or 4th time round.
"Bestlah"!
That's a Nutella Line - "bestlah". =P
Its a pleasure to share. Nice to see "the" anonymous perfecting his drawing skill and others enjoying it too. Yup! Saedah, you right about the dots. Maybe one fine day if God permit will conduct a drawing class about the elements- dots, lines, shapes, marks and tones. Then one will see the significant of dots. I did this with my students many times, very fun. InsyAllah.
In Islamic perspective, one everyday thing caught my attention. the Pen(cil) ~ Qalam !!! As much as the attention on the beginning of the dot, to me the pencil starts it all. The first creation based on hadith qudsi is the Qalam.
I actually looking forward for more "talent" parade by other birds.
p.s. I like the mega mendung song too... kudos with that selection.
brilliant!!
sorry to have miss it :(
hope to make it next week
insyaallah.
thank yew to ALL tt made it possible. loved loved loved th session :)))
"Know your cage and its maker well, and hopefully you will then understand what freedom is...."
Love this one THE MOST. Was very touched by its profound message and am very touched still...
My deepest gratitude.
Such wonderful testimonies. Alhamdulillah!
I'm so grateful for having "found" this class and am honored to be among the birds, Alhamdulillah.
It is amazing how this humble exhibition could actually touch me at such a personal level in a way that i had not experienced before during my visits to other big galleries and art museums in and outside of singapore. This is especially so during the debriefing session by ustaz, about the "rubbish" that we gather from our numerous experiences some of which we mesh or piece together into forms presentable to others. This "rubbish" some of which we would only like to keep at the remote reserves of our mind and not be reminded of, we need to come to terms with and look at it positively so as to have a better understanding of self and Inshaallah be a better person - which could be likened to the elaborate or the very strikingly bare piece of painting.
Do I get you right, ustaz?
I can relate this to my own poetry collection since my school days which at some point i was ashamed to read them myself. But i have recently gathered them all and put them in a form of personal portfolio. They represent a part of me throughout my growing up process.
May Allah bless everyone who has allowed me to reflect deeper and who has inspired me in a way or another. :)
(1) ghoose
Since you missed the class, our book-reading session will be having a break next week. We will continue, insya-Allah the following week to commence on our journey to scale the 7 valleys before we ... finally finish this book which will take us almost 2 years to complete. Who would have thought! SubhanAllah!
(2) aya
Perhaps soon, it will be time to share your talent with the rest of the birds. That is also a form of closure :-)
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