EXHIBITION – TRANSFORMATIONS
September  – December 2016
Ismaili Centre, Toronto – Exhibition Hall
Tuesday-Saturday 11am-4pm

Curated by Zulfikar Hirji, Transformations presents the work of four Canadian artists of Muslim background, Ali Kazimi, Faisal Anwar, Jamelie Hassan, and Fareena Chanda. The artists use a range of contemporary artistic tools including 3D stereoscopic video, social media, neon, optical lenses and industrial design to explore the inner life and its external expressions. Their works also make reference to Islam’s diverse esoteric visual and literary cultures.

Second Exhibition
Char Bagh: A Sensory Garden
Faisal Anwar
October 1-October 28
Tuesday-Saturday 11am-4pm

The term ‘char bagh‘ refers to the Persian/Islamic-style quadrilateral garden divided by walkways or flowing water into four smaller parts with axial paths intersecting at the garden’s centre. This highly structured geometrical scheme is a powerful metaphor for the organization and domestication of the landscape and a symbol of socio-political territory.

Using real-time open network data and Islamic patterned geometry, Char Bagh: A Sensory Garden is an ever-evolving, dynamic, aerial view of a digital char bagh. Consisting of multiple stylized trees, the garden grows over time and with incoming streams of data generated via twitter and instagram. Audiences can passively explore the char bagh projections or actively interact with the garden in real-time using their cellphones. Every new social media interaction will first be projected in its original appearance on to the garden with text/location/time then morph to be integrated in the garden’s evolving pattern.

*This Exhibition part of Nuit Blanche 2016