With an extensive permanent collection including over 12,000 artifacts, the Textile Museum of Canada offers a dynamic assortment of themed exhibitions in addition to producing contemporary shows based on the work of Canadian and international artists. These exhibition styles unite in Magic Squares: The Patterned Imagination of Muslim Africa in Contemporary Culture which opened this spring and remains on view through November 20. Curated by Patricia Bentley, Magic Squares is a group exhibition of four contemporary artists shown in combination with Islamic African artifacts from the museum’s permanent collection. This structure creates an innovative context for the artifacts and prompts the viewer to analyze the past through a contemporary lens. Supported by the Canadian Dawn Foundation and partnered with the Institute of Ismaili Studies, Bentley selected works by artists currently practicing in Canada or the United States and who explore the heritage of their Muslim cultures through Islamic content. Bentley selected seven works by contemporary artists Jamelie Hassan, Hamid Kachmar, Alia Toor and Tim Whiten. In dialogue with artifacts from Muslim Africa, their work reflects a current perspective on the history and importance of symbolism and “patterned imagination” of Islamic culture. Practicing in a variety of mediums including mixed media, painting and sculpture, these artists collectively address perceptions of place, tradition and identity.

        Patricia Bentley shaped this exhibition around spiritual and cultural motifs of Muslim Africa, in particular the magic square. Bentley defines this motif as a grouping of numbers, symbols, or words arranged in a square grid where all rows, columns and diagonals add up to the same sum. In modern times, magic squares are known as mathematical puzzles like Sudoku, but historically they were literally woven into the fabric of Islamic culture and are rich in spiritual power. The cultural experiences of these contemporary artists connect with the tradition and spirituality of this Islamic motif to highlight the artists’ modern identities and beliefs. In an introductory wall panel at the entrance, Bentley’s text emphasizes the artists’ engagement with the meaning of the magic square through their storytelling, prompting the viewer to search for patterns underlying the exhibition.

        Located on the third floor of the Textile Museum of Canada, the exhibition space is a complex network of hallways linking eight galleries. Magic Squares contains forty-four Islamic African artifacts displayed amongst seven contemporary works by the artists. Although the cultural artifacts outweigh the artwork in quantity, they create a necessary context for modern-day artifacts imbued with the handicraft tradition and motif of Muslim Africa. This ratio may also attest to the large demographic that specifically visit the museum to experience their permanent collection.  The circular format and interconnectivity of the exhibition space is very conducive to the nature of this exhibition based in patterns and relationships. Patricia Bentley expects that viewers will enter the exhibition from both directions, but prompts the viewer into a clockwise motion by displaying the initiation shirt advertised on the cover of the exhibition pamphlet. Because Bentley suspects that some viewers will enter in reverse she concludes with Magic Squares (2002-2003), a contemporary work by Tim Whiten that can also conceptually stand as a frontispiece for the exhibition.  The sandblasted crystal clear glass sculpture features an intricate magic square created by overlapping grid patterns beveled into the glass panes. The work’s title and imagery of the magic square also references the wall text of the exhibition’s title and its five logos of magic squares marking the entrance.

        The entranceway of Magic Squares is an important transitional space and can be viewed as a microcosm of the entire exhibition. Framed by two open galleries, the viewer sees both the first and last gallery at once. By opening with the featured artifact of the initiation shirt and ending with Tim Whiten’s two glass sculptures, the exhibition can be seen full circle in one moment. Like many of the artifacts, the initiation shirt is encased in glass and rests on a traditional museum plinth. Patricia Bentley describes this contemporary artifact as a talismanic shirt that provides spiritual protection for a child undergoing an Islamic initiation ceremony. The garment is known as an Islamic amulet, displaying sacred written script and magic square motif. Bentley’s wall text provides the viewer a translation of the Arabic script revealing it as a recitation of the ninety-nine names/attributes of God. Even though the garment was fabricated in the late twentieth century, its traditional presentation, coarse hand stitching and worn appearance make it appear archaic.  This is in stark contrast to the visually pristine and modern presence of Tim Whiten’s glass sculptures, Magic Squares and Mary’s Permeating Sign (2006). These sculptures conclude the exhibition and frame the other side of the exhibition’s entrance. Similar to the function of the initiation shirt, his works create a link between spiritual consciousness and physical reality.[1] Whiten’s early art practice focused on found art sculptures called “functional living artifacts,” however Bentley decided to select two of his more recent works including Mary’s Permeating Sign.[2]  This sculpture combines his found art aesthetic with an exploration of the immateriality and spirituality of glass.   Presented on a plinth, a cast glass rolling pin etched with a magic square is cushioned on a white lace-trimmed pillow that falls beyond the edge of the plinth’s surface. Whiten transforms an everyday object representative of the mundane task of cooking (and perhaps memories of his mother, Mary) and places it with a pillow symbolizing the realm of dreams and levels of consciousness. Mary’s Permeating Sign is reflective of spiritual contemplation due to its relic-like presentation on the plinth. Highlighted by beams of spotlights, Bentley produces an enigmatic presence to the viewer.  This sculpture also reflects how Islamic art seeks to create an ambience in which the transience of material things is emphasized.[3] By beginning the exhibition with the initiation shirt, Bentley presents the viewer with an educational and ethnographic journey into the history of Islamic contemporary culture. She then concludes with Whiten’s glass sculptures to create a unification between spiritual and physical realms and links the lineage of human experience and memory to everyday reality.[4] By coming full circle, Bentley proves that humans live in a transitional world and as one’s surroundings change, the understanding of tradition and place will become more transient.

        The contemporary artists share a similar language of pattern, colour and technique to the artifacts even though the materials are often centuries apart. In the sixth gallery presenting the core of the Islamic faith, the art of calligraphy, contemporary artists Jamelie Hassan and Alia Toor display their work among two Islamic African artifacts and an audio feature. This gallery was the most dramatic and marks the climax of the exhibition. Hassan combines neon light tubing used in advertisement signs with sacred Arabic script in Slippers of Disobedience (1996) and Da’ra (2010). Slippers of Disobedience is composed of two parts. First, a colour photograph of an open eighteenth century Persian/Arabic grammar manuscript inscribed with Arabic calligraphy is displayed on the wall with the work’s title reproduced in red neon as if handwritten. Below, a low plinth of a similar size to the photograph and blending into the dark carpeting of the gallery, displays two pairs of red ceramic slippers and two wooden bookstands angled to face the sign as if in prayer. There is no gallery lighting to illuminate this work, which adds to its enigmatic effect, while the other contemporary works and artifacts are brighter due to the use of surrounding spotlights. The red light, a symbol of warning, produces an unsettling feeling especially since the light is not contained within the space and spills into adjacent galleries. This light is also reflected onto the glass encasing the first artifact on display, a twenty-first century coconut grater, while a traditional commemorative cloth from the late nineteenth century hangs on the opposite wall. The formal similarities of these artifacts to Slippers of Disobedience is significant, the coconut grater reflecting the material, patterning and angular shape of the wooden bookstands, while the sharp metal blade and its implication of the repetitious beating of coconuts reflects the alarming effects of the neon light. The intricate patterning of the coconut grater and its use as an everyday object reflects the importance of the ritual of daily prayer in mosques richly ornamented on the exterior. The coconut grater is presented alongside a wall hanging of a commemorative cloth, which the wall label clarifies as a souvenir sold to visitors of a mosque. The repeating printed motif of the cloth mirrors a similar Arabic script within Hassan’s photograph of the grammar manuscript. This parallel signifies the importance of learning calligraphy for a student of the Arabic language in relation to a devout and obedient Muslim’s religious practice of everyday prayer. Geometric patterns and the art of calligraphy are auspicious signs in Islamic culture and instill humble objects, the act of writing and the sanctity of the mosque with mysticism and spirituality.

        The geographical locations of the artists have significant influence on their cultural identities and artwork. For example, Jamelie Hassan was born in Southwestern Ontario but while grounded in her practice in Canada, Hassan’s work is greatly influenced by the Middle East due to her Lebanese heritage.[5] Slippers of Disobedience reflects the dominance of English culture over her cultural heritage. By referencing the Arabic language in a repeating motif throughout the sixth gallery and especially in the photograph of the grammar manuscript, Hassan reflects the process of translation and the pressure to learn Arabic, the maternal tongue of her parents. Patricia Bentley emphasizes Hassan’s struggle to bridge these cultural barriers by reflecting her work alongside Islamic artifacts enclosed in glass museum displays. The selection of artifacts binds Hassan as a Canadian artist to her Arabic background through language and the politics of place, while the function of the glass cases distance Hassan from her Muslim heritage.[6]  Jamelie Hassan’s artwork also engages with the critical theories of Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, an Indian literary theorist who challenges the subaltern, a postcolonial term for a person socially, politically and geographically marginalized by the dominant western culture.[7] Hassan quotes Spivak in reference to the inspiration for her work: “now let us consider the history of the present as a differentiating event: code name ‘our culture’.”[8] Hassan explores her polarizing identification because of her cultural displacement as not quite Canadian, not quite Arabic.[9] She identifies with the struggles of the subaltern to maintain and reconstruct their cultural identity, which have been fractured by events such as cultural colonialism.

        Jamelie Hassan’s ornamentation of written language and sequence of symbols is also reflected in the work of Pakistan-born Canadian artist Alia Toor, displayed in the sixth gallery. Her wall installation, 99 Names of Aman (2004), displays a series of white dust masks arranged in eleven columns and nine rows, each embroidered with one of the ninety-nine names of God in Islam. Toor’s work of materializing chants also references back to the initiation shirt, which contains similar talismanic prayers sewn into the garment. Her delicate stitching references the laborious technique and skill required for traditional Islamic embroidery and weaving. This disciplined artmaking process references the importance of everyday spiritual practice that is present within the initiation shirt, Hassan’s Slippers of Disobedience and the commemorative cloth. Additionally, 99 Names of Aman reflects an audio feature displayed on the opposite wall next to a museum bench. Recited by a male performer, the audio plays the chants of the ninety-nine names/attributes of God, which is recited in mosques during prayer. Contrasting the installation with Arabic audio emphasizes the fact that many viewers are unable to understand the Arabic text on the dust masks. The audio also creates a dynamic relationship since the chanting contrasts with the inherent function of the masks, which is meant to muffle, protect or hide one’s voice. The wall text panel on Alia Toor confirms this juxtaposition by emphasizing the work’s layering of traditional and contemporary strategies to ensure protection from dangerous events like the 2003 SARS epidemic and 9/11 in New York City. This reference creates a cultural entry point for the viewer and bridges the gap between Islamic and Canadian culture. Bentley employs audio to engage the viewer by connecting Islamic tradition to the current cultural present. Finally, the disembodied presence of the masks as well as Hassar’s ceramic slippers in Slippers of Disobedience reflect the nature of the artifacts throughout the museum’s exhibition, displayed detached from the human body.

        Traditions of Islam are evident throughout Magic Squares in Bentley’s selection of artwork and artifacts, as well as in exhibition layout. It was most likely an intentional choice to select artifacts and artwork with very little representation of the human body because in Islamic art, representations of physical objects and the figure are mainly expressed through literary tradition.[10] This is partially due to the ban on idolatry in Islam and the power associated with the Arabic script of the Holy Qur’an.[11] Like Alia Toor’s stitched inscriptions, the main drive behind Islamic calligraphy, the dominant Islamic art form, is a pleasure in the beauty of shapes and patterns that are produced.[12]  Calligraphy and geometric patterns such as magic squares act as religious images in that Muslim believers may be unable to read or understand them, but acknowledge their power.

        Bentley’s exhibition layout reflects a religious narrative inherent within Islamic design. The interiors of mosques are usually simply ornamented with a few rugs or wall hangings, while the exteriors are adorned with elaborate decoration and pattern.[13] Similarly, Magic Squares is overburdened with many cultural artifacts within the first few galleries but then the viewer encounters the quiet strength of the seven contemporary works. Bentley decided to not overcomplicate the contemporary galleries and only paired these works with a few artifacts, thus strengthening their union. This simplicity also reflects the Islamic idea of emphasizing frugality and one’s pious abandoning of material possession.[14] The artwork therefore became the focal point and spiritual message within the exhibition like the purpose of contemplation and prayer within a mosque.

        Since contemporary works are interspersed amongst cultural artifacts Bentley ensures the viewer can distinguish between them. Bentley houses many of the artifacts in glass displays except for wall hangings and garments displayed on mannequins. This makes the objects appear precious and isolated in their cases compared to the contemporary works, which are allowed a larger space to breath. Bentley utilizes plinths and presentation barriers to mark many of the contemporary works and remain cohesive in this presentation method with the artifacts while ensuring safety of the works. For example, the art-objects of Slippers of Disobedience were originally displayed on the floor of the museum as evident in previous exhibitions such as Jamelie Hassan: At the Far Edge of Words at Museum London in 2009.  However, Bentley employs a four-inch high plinth to mark the work as contemporary, while contrasting the act of viewing the work as if bowing one’s body in prayer.

        Magic Squares explores the boundary between past and present and highlights the different conventions of anthropology and art museums. In displaying contemporary works amongst Islamic African artifacts Bentley approached the exhibition from the perspective of an anthropologist emphasizing the context of Islamic culture.  Artifacts are usually displayed in a museum setting therefore these contemporary works imply a contradiction, as this environment is often characterized by a need for classification.[15] The wall text separates the contemporary works from the cultural artifacts signifying the conventional distinctions between the fields of art and anthropology and the different social and intellectual values attached to them.[16]  The contemporary works have wall labels that are classified under art gallery display conventions with minimal information. In contrast, Bentley presents ethnographic artifacts as ‘works of culture’ by providing detailed written descriptions systematically identifying the objects with extensive identification and significance.[17] The underlying message of this distinction is that ethnographic artifacts are difficult to understand and lack the instant aesthetic power of art.[18]

        An examination of the cultural past through a contemporary lens is Bentley’s main objective throughout Magic Squares. Aided by three organizations, Bentley focuses on connecting place and identity, similar to the encounters of each artist in their work. Most notably, Bentley was generously supported by the Canadian Dawn Foundation that was recently founded in 2010 by Roshan Jamal in Toronto. This Foundation was created with the intent to develop a Canadian identity for Islam and to ensure the Islamic faith for Muslim children born in Canada.[19] Bentley’s decision of displaying contemporary artwork within the exhibition reflects the Foundation’s aim to provide viewers with the tools to understand the history of Islamic faith within a Canadian context. Magic Squares also partnered with the Institute of Ismaili Studies an institution with a similar objective of promoting issues of modernity that arise when Muslims relate their heritage to contemporary circumstances of displacement. Working in collaboration with the Institute, Bentley encompasses their goal of encouraging an interdisciplinary approach to the materials of Islamic history.[20] Similar to many culturally-specific exhibitions, the Institute promotes attention to areas that have had little attention devoted to them in scholarship.[21] Bentley’s curatorial interests and her inspiration for Magic Squares appropriately coincide with the objectives of the Institute of Ismaili Studies and the Canadian Dawn Foundation. The nature of their Islamic interdisciplinary programs also reflects Bentley’s academic aspirations. In addition to holding a position as the Textile Museum of Canada’s Senior Curator, Bentley is also pursuing a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies at York University, investigating mathematics and the artistic and socio-cultural perspectives surrounding magic squares.

        Magic Squares presents the history, tradition and counternarrative of four contemporary artists by remaining deeply rooted in the diverse cultural meaning of the artifacts from Muslim Africa.  Patricia Bentley invites the viewer to confront the powerful and contemporaneous nature of a cultural past, which she proves never remains simply in the past but is repeated throughout time.[22] The artifacts are presented as fragments of culture gathered in the museum, however they provoke symbols and patterns in each artist’s work. The past and present is inextricably bound to the heart of the Islamic message.

Elizabeth Daicos can be reached at liz.daicos@utoronto.com

[1] Carolyn Bell Farrell, Claire Christie and David Liss, Tim Whiten: Messages from the Light (Toronto: Koffler Centre of the Arts, 1997), 7.
[2] Ibid.
[3] Seyyed Hossein Nasr, Islamic Art and Spirituality (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1987), 186.
[4] Farrell, Christie and Liss, 7.
[5] Paddy O’Brien and Melanie Townsend, Jamelie Hassan: At the Far Edge of Words, eds. Dot Tuer et al. (London: Museum London, 2009), 17.
[6] Ibid., 7.
[7] Ibid., 60.
[8] Jamelie Hassan, Trespassers & Captives (London: London Regional Art & Historical Museums, 2000), 29.
[9] Christopher Dewdney and Jamelie Hassan, Jamelie Hassan: Material Knowledge: A Moral Art of Crisis (London: London Regional Art Gallery, 1984), 5.
[10] Oliver Leaman, Islamic Aesthetics: An Introduction (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2004), 47.
[11] Ibid., 56.
[12] Ibid., 55.
[13] Ibid., 51.
[14] Nasr, 19.
[15] Farrell, Christie and Liss, 7.
[16] Arnd Schneider and Christopher Wright, eds., Between Art and Anthropology: Contemporary Ethnographic Practice (New York: Berg Publishers, 2010), 160.
[17] Maruska Svasek, Anthropology, Art and Cultural Production (Ann Arbor: Pluto Press, 2007), 141.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Stuart Laidlaw, “A Good Muslim, and a Good Canadian,” Toronto Star, February 8, 2010, accessed August 7, 2011, http://www.thestar.com/living/religion/article/761857--a-good-muslim-and-a-good-canadian.
[20] “IIS Overview,” The Institute of Ismaili Studies, last modified February 11, 2009, http://www.iis.ac.uk/view_article.asp?ContentID=104413.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Farrell, Christie and Liss, 7.