Yesterday I completed an #art series that kept me working late into the evenings for a fortnight. It's called Seven Valleys. Let me hit you with the images before I explain. 🧵
1. Valley of the Quest
2. Valley of Love
3. Valley of Knowledge
4. Valley of Detachment
5. Valley of Union
6. Valley of Bewilderment
7. Valley of Poverty and Annihilation
(I've no idea what's going on but I'm getting an error message when I try to add alt text so have had to stop)
These were inspired (pretty suddenly I should say) by Fariduddin Attar’s mystic poem Manṭiq-uṭ-Ṭayr (The Conference of the Birds), a poem which aligns all too well with my ongoing bird obsession (and other things). In it, a myriad birds of all kinds set out together to find their King, a quest that…
… takes them across seven valleys symbolising stages on the mystical journey.
To represent these concepts, I used a bold Kufi of my own design, reflected to evoke valleys in an abstract way. I wanted the result to look strong and alien, like totems standing on pedestals formed by the initial Alif.
he birds of the quest are present in the many feathers I carefully assembled to create the different colours and textures (all ethically sourced and collected over many years).
They're each 40x50cm and all available for now.
For lots more photos and links to prints: https://majnouna.com/project-category/seven-valleys/
