Y. Z. KAMI (B. 1956), 2009

Y.Z. Kami aspired to recreate the feeling of wholeness echoed in the Sufi belief by disposing bricks, sometimes stamped with Farsi script, in the shape of ever-widening circles. This work is formed of numerous strips of rice paper, some scanned and printed verses from the thirteenth-century poet and Sufi mystic, Jalal al-Din Rumi, arranged in a mesmerising concentric composition. The composition recalls elements of early Iranian art - for instance the turquoise highlights which are reminiscent of Kashan turquoise glazed tiles, and the circular composition which is both architecturally dome-like and reflects the Sufi sama, the ritual dance of the whirling dervishes who aim at reaching to God through the act of spinning. The end result of his repetitive process is a silent, almost meditative, work of art that evokes the cyclical nature of the ritual daily prayers through concentrically revolving rows of paper, as if each of the cut-out elements held within themselves a prayer. The pair to this painting is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (acc.no.2014.62).