In Search of the Dot that Created the Circle: Geometry in Nature

January 24 - February 28, 2015
Opening Reception: Saturday, January 24, 3 - 7 p.m.

Annie Buckley, Artforum, Critics' Picks, February 23, 2015

The first exhibition at CB1-G (CB1 Guest), In Search of the Dot that Created the Circle opens on January 24, 2015. The exhibition, curated by Amina Ahmed and Santiago Navila, explores how the transformative nature of geometry is used in Islamic art through the practice of both teachers and alumni of The Prince's School of Traditional Arts, London.

PAUL MARCHANT, Sttiniya Star
Rendered construction drawing - Giclée print on archival paper with lightfast ink
Edition of 6, unframed

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:
Keith Critchlow, Paul Marchant. Emma Clark in association with Petherick Urquhart & Hunt, Simon Tretheway, Amina Ahmed, Parveen Zuberi, Lisa DeLong, Susana Marin, Tom Bree, Katya Nosyreva, Shafon Miah, Kayo Kimura, Adam Williamson, Sama Mara, Lee Westwood, Natasha Mann, Leila Dear

CURATED BY:
Amina Ahmed and Santiago Navila

THE TRANSCENDENT AND TRANSFORMATIVE NATURE OF ART INTO GEOMETRY

How is Nature Transformed into Art through Geometry in the Islamic Tradition?

The exhibition will explore this question through the practice of both teachers and alumni of The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts (PSTA). We will collectively journey through this universal tradition and see how it has been revived and continues in practice. To understand Islamic art, it is necessary to understand the archetypal order of nature which informs our perspectives and grants insight into that which is visible and that which is invisible. From these archetypes, we learn to navigate our way through the obscured but not unattainably hidden aspects of that which is either implicitly or explicitly rendered. Together with their students from both East and West, the exhibition includes the work of master geometricians, Dr. Keith Critchlow and Paul Marchant, whose examples in particular trace the dynamic manifestation of geometry in Islamic art. They demonstrate the timeless and universal aspects of a discipline that is both profoundly symbolic and is the essential underlying principle that permeates all living things.

“You are One prior to all computation and ground to all figuration”
-Ibn Gabirol, 11th Century poet of Islamic Spain

SUSANA MARIN, Echoes from Multan, 2011
Natural pigments on khadi paper, 12" x 16.5"

ABOUT PRINCE'S SCHOOL OF TRADITIONAL ART

The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts was founded in 2004 by HRH The Prince of Wales as one of his core charities. It developed from the Visual Islamic and Traditional Arts Programme (VITA) that was established at The Royal College of Art in 1984 by Professor Keith Critchlow who pioneered a postgraduate programme based on the practice of, and research into, the traditional arts.