Blue, The Sound Medicine

In 2019 she completed her one-year diploma in Islamic Traditional Arts from VMCTA, an Art School affiliated with the Princes School of Traditional Arts UK (PSTA). Being an Islamic visual artist, and an art teacher she combines her mystical inclinations and meditation practice with her passion for artistic expression as a path to connecting with the Divine, the One who is nothing but beauty. She has exhibited her work in many group shows and solo shows since 2018.

In my practice, I am drawn to the similarities among spiritual paths. This series explores the use of blue as a metaphor for the heavens through the centuries. In mysticism, the sky represents an ascension to higher realms. Therefore, blue is a reminder of the soul’s journey home: a reuniting with the most High and Divine. I am fascinated by the links in different faiths, regardless of the continent or time they emerged. Exploring teachings from Zoroastrianism to Islam, I am attempting to develop a language for our commonalities. Chanting a verse is a means to absorb noble characteristics into one’s personality and a vehicle for reaching higher realms. Called remembrance, or Dhikr in Islam, a chanting mantra in Hinduism, or affirmations in modern spirituality. Christianity uses the rosary, while Judaic traditions include wearing the blue-lined tallit prayer shawl. The color blue then prompts us to remember the name of God and a pathway to the heavens. As a result, blue transcends the visual, blossoming into a sound that heals the soul, and leads it towards perfection and peace. In this show, I hope to make space for all monotheistic faiths through our combined culture and belief. This new body of work is a celebration of our similarities, a visual reminder of how throughout history, all our paths converge.

Mined by the Ancient Egyptians, adorning tallits, texts and funeral masks, symbol of the celestial, within the colour blue is the story of civilizations and faiths. In this show, artist Fatimah Agha delves deep into the ancient hearts of religions, excavating what unites us. Using symbols, letters, texts and divine personalities, she casts her net beyond the flowering of Islam, back through time to the birth of Zoroastrianism and Buddhism. In works on canvas, paper, wood and papyrus, the colour blue—laden with mysticism, divinity and healing—runs like a ribbon of faith. As a spiritual teacher and student, she captures unexpected links between monotheistic beliefs, identifying beauty and commonalities in overlooked aspects of history. Ties such as Pharoah Akhenaten’s abandonment of polytheism, the linguistic bloodlines of the Hebrew and Arabic languages, and the parallels between Zoroastrianism (the oldest monotheistic faith) and Abrahamic religions. Combining her training in sacred geometry with painterly mark-making, Agha blurs boundaries and brings into dialogue some of the ancient centres of faith: Medina, Najaf, Jerusalem, and Yazd. In yogic scriptures, blue signifies the Throat Chakra and is linked to self-expression. Synonymous with representations of the Virgin Mary and the heavens, the colour has graced Buddhist frescoes since the 6th century and ancient manuscripts of the Holy Quran. Rare, prized, and desired, the sole source of ultramarine was the mountains of Afghanistan. This precious material travelled to Europe during the Crusades, its price rivalling the cost of gold. Fascinating artists with its ‘perfection’, the colour blue is more than a tale of trade and invention; within it is an intangible loftiness, a healing property; it is both sky and portal to another realm. Blue the Sound Medicine aims to show that faith can exist in harmony with reason and does not stand in opposition to beliefs from elsewhere. It is a thread winding through time and space, the hidden and the manifest, making us ascend to a nobler plane. Zehra Hamdani MirzaZehra Hamdani Mirza is an artist and writer. Her writings have appeared in the books Pakistan‘s Radioactive Decade—An Informal Cultural History of the 1970s, and A Beautiful Despair: The Art and Life of Meher Afroz. She is the recipient of the 2021 AICA International Incentive prize for young art critics, Honorable Mention