Fantasies of the End — Basmah Felemban

dFantasies of the EndPrint transfer, natural pigment gouache, ballpen on gessoed plywood
158 x 220 cm
2D Graph Travel

The grid underlies and informs much of Felemban’s work, both conceptually and formally. It serves as a foundation and system of organization to define structures and proportions. More than a tool for composition and aesthetic, the grid becomes a locus of a complex web of relations. A theory that creates logic and rhythm, encoded symbols of divinity. A sublime geometry inspired by God's creation and existing in nature.In Fantasies of the End, Felemban looks at Islamic architecture as mirroring divine imaginaries: ornate visions of the end times, detailed descriptions of purgatory, the intermediate states between life and heaven. Here, she draws from Ibn al-'Arabi's diagram of "Plain of Assembly" (Ard al-Hashr) on the Day of Judgment, from the autograph manuscript of Futuhat al-Makkiyya, ca. 1238.