‘Unity of Being’ Series – National Gallery of Art, Islamabad (Sep 2023)

In this series inspired by the 13th century Sufi Master Ibn Arabi’s theory of Wahdat-ul-Wujud (‘Unity of Being’),

Ahmed explores various Sufi concepts regarding the human being: representing a “microcosm” of all the elements present in the universe or “macrocosm”; reflecting God’s diversity of creation and manifesting God’s dualistic attributes of the Jamali (Beautiful) and the Jalali (Majestic); the Human Being as the “highest of all creations”, belonging in both the Divine and Created/Material. Ibn Arabi’s ‘Unity of Being’ theory reflects a vision of the Sufi mystical tradition that sees all of creation as connected and united, as reflection of One Creator, superseding differences of creed, race or culture. Working in the medium of Digital Collage, in this series, I first made digital photographs of the human figure that included projections on the subjects’ bodies of keywords from Ibn Arabi’s theory. Using acrylic paints and mixed media on this base, I painted central concepts and phrases from the theory in an expressionistic calligraphy. In this series, I attempt to create a concrete and abstract merger of the ways the human form embodies the divine and the material.