Long-time collaborators Sama Mara, an artist and geometer, and Lee Westwood, a composer,undertake an innovative visual journey that brings together art, music, and geometry, revealing a compelling unity between the worlds of traditional Islamic art and Western contemporary composition. With A Hidden Order, they implement a pioneering theory developed by Mara and based on the scientific relation between sound, colour, and pattern. Their work draws on the fact that the foundational elements of geometric art are also the root principles governing the rhythm and pitch of music, bringing into focus the unexpected correlation between the artistic traditions of Islamic cultures of the past and contemporary mathematics such as fractal geometry.
The artworks presented here are visual expressions of music coming to life in the form of intricate, kaleidoscopic prints with vibrant colours and complex shapes that harmonise sound (music) and space (pattern). Initially, Westwood and Mara meticulously crafted rhythmic structures using the geometric characteristics of triangles, squares, pentagons, and hexagons. Then, Westwood composed 10 instrumental chamber works for a mixed ensemble and recorded these pieces with a quartet. Mara’s computer programme allows for the conversion of live music into Islamic-inspired patterns, producing real-time visualisations. These range from striking studies of single notes to complex and densely polyphonic works, illustrating broader musical narratives through a labyrinth of morphing textures and forms. Within the works, each colour corresponds to a particular note, the density of pattern to the rhythm of the music, and the texture of each individual cell to the timbre, or sound quality, of the note itself. It is through the exploration of this intrinsic relationship of harmony, sound, and space, as evident in music, that a hidden order is revealed.
Geometric art reflects the perfect harmony underlying the unity and order of nature, with its infinite patterns evoking a spiritual resonance. Mathematics is an integral component of Islamic aesthetic, design, and geometric art, going back to the Golden Age of Islam (622-1258 CE). Islamic scholars drew on the works of the ancient cultures of Byzantium, Greece, Rome, and Persia, assimilating and synthesizing this knowledge and adding their own developments, exercising a prolific influence on the development of science in Europe. Within the art world, Arabesque and geometric patterns, as seen in architectural feats such as the Alhambra in Granada, speak to the symmetries and perfect forms of mathematical progressions. This art of pattern reached a level of sophistication unparalleled in its time.
Mara and Westwood create a real-time visual manifestation of this unity, including an interactive platform, live performance and short films, culminating in as a series of giclée prints and a musical album. Reminiscent of the mashrabiya screens found throughout the Middle East, or the endless growth of a fractal dragon, A Hidden Order offers a glorious colourful visual fabric of multiple and dynamic tessellations as rich as the audio score it is created from and as complex as the history of Islamic geometry it draws on.
PRESS RELEASE: PDF
IMAGE SHEET: PDF
PRESS:
Islamic Arts Magazine
Apollo Magazine
ALBUM:
Purchase a copy of the 'A Hidden Order' album, on CD or digital download, at:
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About Sama Mara and Lee Westwood
Sama Mara
An artist and geometer, Sama Mara is based in London. He was awarded the Barakat Trust Prize at the Prince's School of Traditional Arts, from where he graduated with an MA in Traditional Arts. He completed his BA in Music and Visual Performance at the University of Brighton. Mara has a wide range of skills and interests, including traditional geometry, programming, painting, music theory, studio photography, video editing, fractal geometry and quasi-crystals, all of which inform, inspire and enable his practice as an artist. Mara also teaches, with past projects including a cross curriculum education project with The Princes School and Maslaha, mixing arts and sciences to teach maths and physics through geometry.
Lee Westwood
Both a composer and a guitarist, Lee Westwood’s music draws influences from a wide field of cultures and traditions, including Modern Jazz, Folk and the past 150 years of Western music. Westwood has studied with a number of composers including Martin Suckling, Martin Butler and Alison Kay. He is currently one of Sound & Music's New Voices Composers 2014-15, and has toured his music extensively throughout the UK and Europe, releasing both a large back-catalogue of solo albums and a wide selection of sheet music. The Musician's Union described Lee as "One of the UK's most exciting and versatile musicians." Westwood performed for five years with Songlines Award nominees Dizraeli & The Small Gods, and currently tours and records with experimental trio Le Juki.
About Kashya Hildebrand
The gallery's artists challenge pre-conceived notions of nationality and cultural identity, creating an environment in which established norms become blurred and characterizations from seemingly contrasting cultures occupy the same visual space. This juxtaposition leads to a simultaneous renunciation and acceptance of the traditional and the contemporary, creating an environment that is in constant flux. Religion, politics, nationality and culture are treated as the foundation of identity, depicted and disseminated to varying degrees. Through painting, collage, sculpture, photography and installation work the artists convey the contestations of the contemporary political landscape.
Exhibition:
Sama Mara and Lee Westwood: A Hidden Order
Location:
Kashya Hildebrand, 22 Eastcastle Street London W1W 8DE, UK Telephone: +44 (0)20 3588 1195
Dates:
10 September - 11 October, 2014 at Kashya Hildebrand Gallery, London, UK
The live performance will begin promptly at 8pm on 10 September.
Attendance is free but spaces are limited.
To RSVP please email info@kashyahildebrand.org
Hours:
Monday – Friday 11am – 6pm, Saturday 12 – 6 pm
Admission is free
For press information and images, please contact:
Anna Wallace-Thompson
+44 (0)20 3588 1195
anna@kashyahildebrand.org
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