Reflections On Shangri-La
As an artist and an Islamic art historian, it was intriguing for Bahia to look at the collection through the eyes of Doris Duke, the woman who has put it together. Bahia’s reflections on the collection yielded a three-part exhibition compromising of 15 wall panels entitled “The Women of Shangri-La,” an animated “Fish bowl” and two tessellation designs of “Mythical Creatures.”
For “The Women of Shangri-La” Bahia noticed that in a lot of the artwork Duke collected, there are women but many of them are miniature illustrations. These women are from different dynasties, a courtesan dancing in a court, a woman sitting in her house having a drink with her cat, a weaver, a reader, a musician, a lover — they are always hidden on small artifacts in different parts of the collection. By bringing them together and having them on display and blowing their size up, you get to closely examine the intimate life of these women, their daily activities, their social status, the way they dress, how they made themselves beautiful—but it also brings them to the general narrative of forgotten women in history. These ‘small’ women have been blown almost to the size of a real-life human being so the visitors can meet the women of Shangri-La, who are also the women of different dynasties of the different centuries of Islamic rule.
Even in supposedly “static” artworks, the patterning - arabesques, swirls, geometric compositions - have movement. In describing the fish bowl video artwork Bahia Shehab notes : “The minute I looked at this object I saw it move - layers of patterns in motion, patterns of unity, linked to the continuity of the universe.” The choice of the music is also integrated into the structure of the changing of the seasons, as well as reorganizing the idea of what is ‘Islamic’ in the brain of the viewer. The soundtrack is "Moments of sufficient lucidity" from the album An Empty Bliss Beyond This World by The Caretaker (James Kirby). The album is based on samples of pre-World War II vinyl ballroom jazz records. The record's editing of the audio sources is based on a study regarding people with Alzheimer's disease being able to remember music they listened to when they were younger, as well as where they were and how they felt when they listened to it. To the artist this is relevant to Islamic art in how the new artists of this field are trying to remember what the art used to be, but also how Islamic art feels outside of discourse and rationalization.
Finally, selecting real and mythical creatures from the artwork in Shangri-La’s collection, Shehab fit the images within two tessellated stars. They're tapestries of the rich myths from the diverse cultures of the Islamic world. Yet the mirrored, fragmented surfaces on which the stars are printed suggest a more biting commentary on the perception of these symbols in the West. Shehab challenges the viewers to confront their own biases about ‘exoticism’ when facing these displaced menageries.
Honolulu Museum of Art, Honolulu - Hawaii. Video installation, 15 printed panels 1.15x40 cm each, 2 tessellated stars, mirrors and printed metal, 45x45 cm. September 2018 to March 2019.
