Soumaya Mauthoor, a young muslim materials scientist completing her PhD, has agreed to show me around the materials department and introduce me to her friends at midday congregational prayer. The sisters of Imperial’s Islamic Society gather in a large empty meeting room and catch up over a quick lunch before preparing for the prayers and sermon. They have a hi-fi system connected to the rooms in which the men gather – at once connected and remote – hearing though not heard. I sit to the side, trying not to get in the way.
These women are warm, welcoming, broad-smiling, respectful, interested. Soumaya introduces me to everyone, including Zobia Gundkalli, a medic, who promises to show me around her department soon. I am struck by – and slightly envious of – this kind of sisterhood. It clearly runs deep – doesn’t dwell on distractions at the surface. It doesn’t matter if I get on with you, if we have the same interests. We sit side by side, we perform the same ritual actions, sitting, standing, bowing, standing again, sitting once more.
I feel closed off by comparison, and now slightly ashamed. Afterwards, as we walk and talk, Soumaya switches easily between my questions about visual representation in mosques and the specialised x-rays and microscopes in the materials labs. As each day passes on the Imperial campus, I feel more and more like a tourist in the land of science, and more painfully aware of the paucity of my intellect. More humble pie for dinner tonight, methinks. Humbled but inspired, a good place to be.
I am always slightly envious of religious circles. I think I thought that was how being an artist would be but invariably you’re left to your own devices.
Beautiful images coming out of this residency Kate, and it’s only the beginning! Are you going to incorporate some of their materials as well as interpreting them?
I like this alot! The link between material and devotional matters is so interesting….It makes me think of my own work, which is about the use of material media – print, film, radio, telephones – in African religious practice. Everything comes down to things we can hold, touch, feel, read, hear, smell…..even and especially the ‘transcendent’! Also makes me think about that great Rowan Williams article/chapter we once discussed (where is it??) about the life of THINGS….
oh yes that RW piece is in Grace and Necessity, I think it’s in the chapter about a French theologian…someone beginning with M! Loved that book. Thanks for suggesting it to me, way back when!