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Original painting dimensions: 98 cm x 113 cm
Painted on a handmade khadi paper
Medium: Watercolour and 24ct goldleaf
This piece, Andalusian Dream, takes inspiration from the sublime creation that is the Nasrid Palace of Alhambra. Written in Maghrebi Andalusian style, the inscription is a Persian couplet written by Mawlana Jalaluddin Rumi in his poem ‘I’ve come to take you’, and reads ‘You are my life, and my soul – please be my last prayer, my heart must hold you forever’.
At the centre of the piece is an Andalusian and Moroccan style arch, adorned and enamelled by wondrous vines decked with two eight-pointed stars and a delicate frame of a traditional Māori border. The artwork presents a wide spectrum of shades used typically in tilesworks found in the architecture of the Maghreb and Andalusia. Reflecting on themselves, is the richness and depth of the words of Rumi carried over from Persia into the architecture of Al-Andalus – a framing of love, from one tradition into another.