Ayat al Kursi

This is the center mandala of my new text piece. The title is "Throne: The Book of Revelation cut from the Koran". I used this title because both the book of Revelation and the Koran make many references to the throne of God. It's remarkable, actually, that the metaphors are so similar. So in this center mandala I included a passage from the Koran called "Ayat al Kursi", or "The Throne Verse". It's found in the second chapter of the Koran ("Al Baqara", or "The Cow"), and it begins with these famous words of praise:

Allahu la illaha illa hu.
(Allah! There is no god but He.)

These words are used as a call to prayer five times a day for all Muslims. It is chanted by all Muslims, and forms the core of every Sufi gathering. It even has a name - it's called the tahlil, which translates into English as 'rejoicing'.

So anyway, I like it. A lot. I created the prayer inside the mandala by cutting the letters from the Bible, and wrote it in English, then the English transliteration; back and forth between the two. The rest of the piece, surrounding the mandala, is the book of Revelation, so this little island, or throne, is surrounded by a sea of Revelation, and to create this I cut the letters from the Koran. It's a large piece; 44.5" x 30".

I'll be showing it next week at the "Mystics" show at BRIC. More info to come.