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Palace and Mosque
Cultural Confluences in Art
Cartwright Hall
Lister Park
Bradford BD9 4NS
29 April 06 – April 07
What can possibly connect the splendour of a stained glass panel designed by the 19th century artist William Morris with sumptuous contemporary silk saris from India? The stylised floral motifs that so characterised Morris’s work surface in the saris, which are themselves drawn from Mughal floral patterns. The saris also resurrect the Mughal technique of “varakh ke kaam” – the complex process of applying gold and silver leaf to textiles –a technique that has been in disuse for quite a while. Whether Morris was in his turn influenced by Mughal floral pattern then becomes a matter of debate.
Prelude is an exhibition about connections between objects across different centuries and cultures. The links may be thematic, aesthetic, technical or even political or social. The links may be deliberate or accidental. They force the viewer to look again and think again.
Using the richly diverse collections of Bradford Museums, Galleries and Heritage, Prelude explores two themes – Beauty and Stories. In Beauty, objects illustrate how notions of beauty are not confined to works of art that are visually pleasing. Beauty can also be articulated through moral, political or social commentary. The beauty of Lynn Chadwick’s sculpture Radar, produced in the 1950s lies in its power to convey the cold war – what Herbert Read defined as the geometry of fear. Kalim Afzal’s Fountain, on the other hand, appears to comply with received ideas about beauty and form. However, it also embodies internal cultural journeys that had tormented Afzal before he arrived at eventual resolutions.
Glass is an important focus, in its own right in Prelude. The objects connect and reflect far-flung cities, areas and countries - Syria, India, Iran, Venice, Bohemia, Lithuania, America and Bradford. Glass ignores cultural boundaries - technologies, techniques and designs have zigzagged across frontiers and continents with lightning speed. The American, Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848 -1933), was mesmerised by the delicate swan-like beauty of the Iranian rose water sprinklers he saw at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Islamic glass seen during visits to North Africa as a young man had also made a deep impact. One of the most influential glass craftsmen of the modern world the Tiffany piece in Prelude juxtaposed with two Iranian rosewater sprinklers, show how he familiarised Europe and America with Islamic forms while giving glass his own unique stamp. By looking to Islamic glass as a source book, Tiffany was acknowledging that the Middle East and North Africa were the cradle of glass craftsmanship. A contemporary gilded and enamelled Syrian glass mosque lamp recently gifted to the collections, demonstrates the continuity of the tradition, underscored by poignancy – there is only one surviving enameller left in Syria.
Bradford is also a point of confluence for glass journeys. Kalim Afzal, born and brought up in Bradford, starts his glass journeys from the opposite direction of Tiffany. Very much part of the vibrant, contemporary European glassmaking milieu, Afzal who is of Pakistani descent, eventually retraced the pan-Islamic glass spoor. This journey meant a reconnection with Islamic form, pattern and function. Also part of the Bradford confluence is glassmaker Peter Layton renowned for his sculptural, fluid glass creations. Layton was brought up in Bradford, a city with which he continues to maintain a strong connection. He founded Glass House in London, one of the longest surviving glass studios in the country. Layton too has links with an important glass making tradition. He was born in Prague in Bohemia (part of the modern Czech Republic) which has been producing its own distinctive glass since medieval times.
The theme of Stories explores how art throughout history, expresses the universal human emotions of love, grief, loss, fear, flight, rage, treachery, jealousy, compassion and bewitchment. Ford Madox Brown’s Romeo and Juliet and Rossetti’s Tristram and Isoude: Love Potion are grouped with the Indian artist Arpana Caur’s painting Immersion, Emergence. The latter is based on the legend of Sohni and Mahiwal, a love story that is equally owned by Muslims, Sikhs and Hindus. Madox Brown, Rossetti and Caur are looking at a similar theme – a tragic, doomed love so profound that the lovers are immortalised in the collective consciousness – a theme that is enduringly pervasive across cultures.
Victorian mourning jewellery and beautifully block printed Islamic bier cloths are some of the objects that explore grief and loss. Farhad Ahrarnia’s Mr. Singer – a video installation that explores treachery, produces a touch of wry humour. It is based on a real story of a secret agent masquerading as a Singer sewing machine salesman. His visits to different regions within and around Iran are depicted as red lines of stitching and are punctuated by the rattle of gunfire caused by conflicts, no doubt triggered by his intelligence reports.
Prelude showcases a number of new acquisitions, for the very first time. These include Dollhouse by Yinka Shonibare, short-listed for the Turner Prize in 2004, and a stained glass panel designed by Rossetti, depicting the Sacrifice of Isaac. The riches of Prelude encourage visitors to make their own discoveries and connections.
Prelude is part of Pillars of Light, a vibrant year-long programme of events being held throughout the Yorkshire region, conceived by Alchemy. Pillars of Light explores the confluence of Muslim cultures with other cultures.
Prelude is the principal pilot for Connect: People, Place, Imagination: Revisioning the Permanent Collections displays at Cartwright Hall due to be launched in 2007-08.