Numina at the Barbican
Art, Creativity & Culture • Documentary
Zarah Hussain’s sculptural installation Numina was commissioned by the Barbican and installed in the Centre's foyers from 1 October 2016 - 25 January 2017.
Blurring the boundaries between science and spirituality, Islamic geometry is traditionally drawn by hand with a ruler and pen, using mathematics that celebrate the order and structure found in the universe to create infinite repeating patterns. Taking the essence of this, Numina combined designs found in the art and architecture of the Islamic world with contemporary digital arts, bringing to life a usually static artform by mapping animated geometric patterns onto a sculpture composed of tessellating pyramids arranged on a hexagonal grid.
The presence of infinite repeating patterns in Islamic spaces is conducive to meditative and transcendent states. In the same way, Numina created a space within the Barbican for contemplation and reflection.
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