Groundless III, IV, V
2016-2017
Groundless V, 40’ x 10’ x 5”
Groundless III, 40’ x 10’ x %’
Sharjah Art Museum
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
Irving Arts Center
Irving, TX
Yeiser Arts Center
Paducah, KY
Groundless VI, 50’ x 10’ x 5”
My Groundless series drew on Mughal architecture to create immersive spaces recalling sublime forces of nature. Following Jaali and Floating Meditations, Groundless marks a culmination of my initial body of work in laser-cut acrylic that had been fractured and reassembled. Inspired by views of the sunset over the Mississippi River, a kaleidoscopic collage of organic and geometric patterns emanates from the wall. Groundless was pivotal: it gathered discrete themes I had researched and united them in my first truly all-immersive installation. The title refers to the turning point in my life at the time as I embraced “groundlessness” after multiple displacements in life. Here I transcended the compartmentalization of identities that emerged through my experience as an immigrant American, allowing the different pulls from my past to come together in harmony.
As the viewer moves, the work responds to the shifting perspective suggesting the impermanence of a sunset. The play of light through and across differently translucent materials and the shadows cast through suspended latticework above enhances the sense of transience. The aesthetic density of Groundless harks to Sufi shrines in Pakistan. There, ornate color and pattern fill tiny spaces, inviting an overwhelming ocular absorption. I created a space that spoke to a Muslim mystic tradition, yet as unexpectedly offered a space of spiritual quickening to visitors from different cultural traditions. Islamic geometric patterns infuse an iconic American landscape. Overhead a freely floating segment suggests my own transcendence at the point of creation: suspended above the space I could only create once I’d accepted the lessons of my past.
© 2014-2024 Sarah Ahmad. All Rights Reserved.