14 ukBahá’í THE ARTS
the arts
Art and the interconnectedness of all things In Oxford, the bicentenary of the Birth of the Báb was celebrated at a special event with exhibition held at Wolfson College on 3 November 2019
T HE GATHERING featured presentations an Arabic word meaning gate or door—spoke a new music by a number of Bahá’ís who shared insights to His society in mid-19th century Iran. So startling was from their various creative practices. By way His rendition of the familiar sources of Islamic religion, the of an introduction and welcome to the event, Qur’án and the sacred words of Islam’s holy teachers, that He Canadian scholar Todd Lawson sent some was eventually put to death by firing squad at the young age introductory thoughts on the Báb as “artist”: of 32 in 1850. He had insisted that the world was now at a “To isolate the spiritual from art is a bit like trying to isolate point in which the deepest spiritual teachings of Islám cried the wet from water. The essentially metaphorical processes out to burst beyond their typically circumscribed and, in the of art—whether plastic, graphic, literary, architectural, or context of the burgeoning globalization of the time, frankly musical—isolates and privileges the spiritual quality of all parochial cultural home to enrich the life of humanity as a artistic expression and practice. More than anything, what we whole. Through rewriting the Qur’án, a bold and audacious call today “art” circumscribes an activity that seeks somehow artistic gesture, the Báb attracted the admiration and devotion to capture and even analyze a feeling or response to the world of thousands of His fellow Iranians who likewise felt the same that would remain otherwise ineffable or unmarked. Art inevitable transformations stirring in their souls. It has been speaks a truth that cannot be spoken another way. In art there said: “When the mode of the music changes, the walls of the is a great reverence for the luminous interconnectedness city shake.” Nothing could be truer of the response of Iran of “deep down things” that mirrors, illumines and echoes to the new call of the Báb, Whose insistence upon the nonthe most profound mystical experiences of the prophets, negotiable unity of humanity, of the interconnectedness of messengers, teachers and gurus of what we call “religion”. cosmic processes with the life of the soul, and the oneness of The works presented here today are stunningly beautiful the divine source of imagination, creation and being was both examples of both the work of the individual artists and the His greatest message and His death warrant. vibrant, ceaselessly-changing and generative connectedness The Báb was, in His role as prophet, a highly among the arts, art and the artists. This is symbolic of the accomplished artist, though He may not have used such occasion: to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of a term to identify Himself. The calligraphic flaming star One whom Bahá’ís believe will one day be recognized by the exquisitely demonstrates His mastery of His materials, His world as having wrought profound change in the spiritual life powerful creative imagination and His unremitting desire of the planet. to demonstrate the quite sacred interconnectedness of all ‘Alí-Muhammad Shirází, known to history as the Báb— things. Simultaneously cool and hot, near and far, this star is symbolic of the human being through whom the forces of life 15 ukBahá’í THE ARTS
and art combine to create Colour, story and above consciousness. It is one of all, time and, its offspring several similar calligraphic history, become tamed works produced by the through artistic expression, Báb during His short life. whether musical, literary, It is constituted largely of sculptural, pictorial or quotations from the Qur’án graphic. extolling the power of God Out of the apparent chaos and the imminence of a new — or at least bafflement — of cycle of life for the world. It being in the world the artist promises hope for the future perceives and experiences in a voice that Islam had harmony, unity, resolution, not previously heard and meaning and hope. The may be thought to mark the artist communicates this beginning of a specifically perception, this feeling, to Iranian modernism in the world, and the world is addition to its unmistakably universal song of hope. enriched, emboldened, heartened, given life. The strange and We are all deeply honored to be able to join together undeniable experience of sensing music in art, art in literature here on this occasion to celebrate through our own art His and literature in all artistic expression, as if art itself creates unquenchable luminosity and His veneration of the artistic and speaks its own language, maintains our attraction to and, vocation as a mode of truth-telling and revelation. in fact, dependence upon art. There is a kinship that flows Rhythm, harmony, melody, form and space are through it all and the kinship is essentially spiritual.” TL experienced in a heightened way through what we call “art”.
Arts, crafts and sciences uplift the world of being, and are conducive to its exaltation. Knowledge is as wings to man's life, and a ladder for his ascent. Its acquisition is incumbent upon everyone. The knowledge of such sciences, however, should be acquired as can profit the peoples of the earth, and not those which begin with words and end with words... – Bahá'u'lláh