Sixteenth International Conference on Design Principles & Practices

Abstract

On March 15, 2019, the Al-Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch were the sites of New Zealand’s first prosecuted terrorist attack. In the aftermath, fifty-one people were killed (shuhada’s), forty persons wounded, and family and community members traumatized. New Zealand’s Muslim community warned authorities of threats in the fear that something was imminent; however, their voice was not met with gravitas and instead was relegated to the margin. This paper presents practice-led research that ‘draws’ on the attack as tahqiq (witnessing/attestation) and kashf (unveiling) bringing forth a Muslim voice from the margins to the center. That is to say, the event became the force for a possible Islamic ontological turn. The study undertakes a close reading of 12th century Islamic philosopher Ibn al-‘Arabī’s ontology of wujūd (existence/being), emphasizing that a New Zealand Muslim diaspora’s fundamental experience of the world today requires an inquiry into three modalities made up of Dunya (present-world), barzakh (intermediate-world), and akhira (afterworld). Expressive possibilities of the locus of this diasporic experience are expressed in a drawing installation practice. It mirrors the shadow play process of the divine’s tajallī (radiant brilliance) that is projected through the veil of the barzakh (intermediate world) giving rise to the shadow world of Dunya – our reality. In this sense, the drawing practice is the projected shadow play of wujūd. Therefore drawing, poetry, and installation are used as methods of expression to create a makān (place/location of being) that is appropriate for remembering the event.