Making Paradise Exploring the Concept of Eden Through Islamic Garden Design - Albany Arts

Making Paradise
Exploring the Concept of Eden Through Islamic Garden Design

                Clare Celeste Börsch, Geo Biodiversity III, Handcut paper illustrations in layers of flexiglass, 50cm, 2018

***For immediate release***

Farkhondeh Ahmadzadeh | Veeda Ahmed | Clare Celeste Börsch | Jethro Buck | Jung Byun |
Alessandro Cancian | Emma Clark | Rachel Dein | Mohammad Barrangni Fashtami | Sharmina Haq |
Yasmin Hayat | Zarah Hussain | Jane Lee McCracken | Karen Nicol | Olga Prinku | Shorsh Saleh |
Geoff Sample | Soraya Syed | Ross P Taylor

Exhibition Dates: 29 April — 30 September 2021
Press Preview: Wednesday 28 April

The Aga Khan Centre Gallery is delighted to present Making Paradise, a major new exhibition that
explores the concept of Eden through Islamic garden design.

Realised in collaboration with all three institutions at the Aga Khan Centre, the show brings
together nineteen international multimedia artists each of whom will present an interpretation of
the concept of Al-Jannah — the Garden of Eden, or Paradise in Islam. Alongside their work, the
gallery will display digital reproductions of specific works from Aga Khan Museum’s permanent
collection, many of which are being made accessible to UK audiences for the first time.

At the centre of the exhibition will be a film produced by the Aga Khan Development Network
(AKDN). This not only highlights the many garden restoration and development projects achieved
by the AKDN, but also powerfully conveys the message of His Highness Aga Khan IV, the
hereditary Imam (spiritual leader) of the Shia Imami Ismaili Muslims Aga Khan IV, the Imam of
Ismaili Muslims. His Highness the Aga Khan, who has commissioned many gardens himself,
including those at the Ismaili Centre London, believes gardens are rich and rewarding places of
gathering, not only capable of inspiring delight, but also of strengthening a sense of global
community.

Throughout the history of Islam, gardens have been seen as embodiments of Paradise, reflecting
the bounty of Allah and the blessings of life. Indeed, Paradise is described as a garden not only
in the Qur’an, but in countless works of spiritual literature and poetry which portray a lush green
sanctuary, irrigated by lakes and fountains. As His Highness said when he opened the Aga Khan
Park in Toronto, ‘Gardens are a place where the ephemeral meets the eternal, and where the
eternal meets the hand of man.’1

Making Paradise brings together digital reproductions of classical miniature paintings from Aga
Khan Museum’s permanent collection with other eastern and western depictions of elements
associated with Paradise, including Islamic geometry, traditional ceramic work, gold work
embroidery, hand-stitched textiles, collage and modern applique techniques. The walls of the
gallery will be transformed into the four symbolic quadrants of the Chahar Bagh, based on the
‘four gardens’ of Paradise in the Qur’an. The central focus is a silent fountain, designed by
renowned Islamic garden designer Emma Clark. From this will spring a bespoke paper-cut
installation of organic forms, created by American collage and installation artist Clare Celeste
Börsch. Other featured works include calligraphic pieces by Soraya Syed, four ceramic plates by
Yasmin Hayat, tulle embroidery by Olga Prinku and a soundscape of birdsong developed by Geoff
Sample.

Says Esen Kaya, Aga Khan Centre Gallery Curator: ‘We are honoured to present an exhibition
which embraces such diversity of artistic practice, and which visitors of all ages and backgrounds
can delight in. Gardens are such important spaces and certainly in this time of Covid they have
become even more important for people to be in. It feels timely to celebrate the concept of
gardens and paradise at a time when our lives have been so restricted. This exhibition
purposefully combines historical artworks from a variety of collections alongside contemporary
artistic interpretations. In the exhibition you will find exquisite work by artists whose practice
originates from ancient fine art training to those who use more contemporary methodology and
materials to produce artworks that respond to the subject. This multi-sensory and richly diverse
exhibition will have something for everyone, not least, an opportunity to consider ideas on
paradise and what it means to us as individuals’.

Making Paradise is supported by a full learning and engagement programme will be accessible to
all ages, abilities, social, economic and religious backgrounds, developed in collaboration with the
Aga Khan Museum and the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. The exhibition will also include talks
delivered by Emma Clarke and other key project partners including the Royal Horticultural Society.
We will be offering a comprehensive learning programme that will cover workshops both online
and in person later in the year. Some of the exhibiting artists are lecturers and graduates of the
Prince’s School of Traditional Arts in London. This show includes newly commissioned work by UK
1. “Inauguration of the Aga Khan Park, Toronto | Aga Khan Development Network”, Akdn.org, 2021, online, Internet, 19 Mar. 2021. , Available:
https://www.akdn.org/speech/his-highness-aga-khan/inauguration-aga-khan-park-toronto.

based and international artists, giving the exhibition a global appeal. Alongside showing works
from Aga Khan Museum, the Aga Khan Centre Gallery has collaborated with the collections team
at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Lindley Library to identify botanical illustrations of specific trees,
fruits and flowers mentioned in the Qur’an in relation to gardens of paradise. This exciting show
will appeal to audiences interested in gardens, Islamic Art, traditional fine art techniques including
gilding, miniature painting, Islamic geometry. This also includes collaborations with The Prince’s
School of Traditional Arts, whose patron is His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales, The Royal
School of Needlework, whose patron is The Duchess of Cornwall, and The Royal Horticultural
Society.

Adds Kaya: ‘The Aga Khan Centre is a place of education, insight and cultural exchange. We hope
that Making Paradise will help to deepen our visitors’ understanding of Islam and Muslim cultures
both past and present.’

Making Paradise is presented as a collaborative project between AKF-UK, AKU-ISMC, IIS, AKM
and AKTC.

Note: In line with government regulations surrounding the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the exhibition will
open by appointment only until the end of June. Tickets will be available through Eventbrite. For updated
information please visit our website: www.agakhancentre.org.uk/gallery/

For press information, please contact Albany Arts Communications:

Carla von der Becke
carla@albanyartscommunications.com
t: +44 (0) 20 78 79 88 95; m: +44 (0) 79 74 25 29 94

Notes to Editors:

About the artists

Farkhondeh Ahmadzadeh is an Iranian artist based in London. Her work explores the disciplines
of Persian poetry manuscripts, sacred geometry and Persian miniatures. She received her MA with
distinction from Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, London.

For the last 20 years, Ahmadzadeh has spent time living and studying under calligraphy masters in
Iran. She was awarded the Jerwood prize in 2011 for Islamic traditional art and continues to teach
Islamic manuscript and Persian miniature at the Princes School of Traditional Art. She is
currently teaching Persian miniature MA course and Islamic manuscript illumination evening
courses in Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, London. Ahmadzadeh exhibited her body of work,
Haft Peykar, an illustration of epic Persian poetry, in London in March 2016, and in Scotland in
2017. INKY Leaves Publishing featured her work on the 8th issue of their quarterly published
magazine called INKQ. Her painting showing the stages of Reza Abbasi’s “seated man” is on
display at Albukhary Gallery at the British Museum.

Veeda Ahmed is a London based artist, researcher and educator. She holds an MFA (Gold Medal)
from the University of Punjab, Pakistan (1974), has studied at the Ruskin School of Art, University of
Oxford (1977) and in 2013 completed her PhD from the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional
Arts, London.

Ahmed has trained under renowned miniature and icon painters, illumination masters, Japanese
paper makers and skilled geometers. Her forms move freely without boundaries as she draws from
these knowledge pools to create a way of painting that blurs the lines between the traditional,
representational and contemporary.

In her works, Ahmed’s gaze is directed upwards towards the heavens- birds, angels, branches,
wings, the tree of life, 365 moons- feature prominently. She pulls together the threads of learning
to weave a dialogue with traditional miniature painting, illumination, sacred geometry and western
art.

She has exhibited widely, recently holding two solo exhibitions - Echoes of Contemplation (2017)
at the Prince’s Foundation and In the Absence of Shadows (2019), Minaretein Gallery, Doha. In
2020 she participated in the Discerning Eye Exhibition in London. Her work is held in private and
public collections all over the world.

Clare Celeste Börsch is an American collage and installation artist based in Berlin. She brings
thousands of individually cut and arranged images of flora and fauna together into lush and
intricate compositions that span from works on paper to immersive installations. Blooming with
colour, buzzing with insects, and brimming with foliage, the works are visually captivating.
Börsch’s collages reflect her impressions of nature. She has been assimilating to different cultures
and environments her entire life – having lived in Brazil, the US, Italy, Honduras, Argentina and
Germany. Collage allows her to pull together naturalist imagery from across the globe and create
a cohesive visual story. Much like her own memories.

Her three-dimensional collage installations have been exhibited internationally and transform
ordinary spaces into fantastical biospheres. These works are evocative of our planet’s most diverse
ecosystems and are a powerful reminder of the preciousness of the earth’s threatened flora and
fauna. Borsch uses naturalist imagery from 1900 and earlier, many species of which have already
vanished or are vanishing, which adds a layer of ecological urgency to her work. She has an
ongoing collaboration and creative dialogue with biodiversity scientist Louisa Durkin of the
Biodiversity Institute.

Jethro Buck is a painter with a special interest in Indian miniature painting. He applies traditional
techniques to explore and celebrate the natural world, mainly using hand ground natural
pigments. Buck holds a BA Honours in Fine Art from Falmouth College of Arts (2005-2008) and an
MA in Traditional Arts from The Princes Foundation School of Traditional Arts (2012-2014). He was
awarded the Farjam scholarship to study there and in 2014 received the Ciclitira prize for
outstanding work presented by HRH Prince Charles. In addition to several well received sell out
solo exhibitions, Buck’s work has been acquired by numerous private collections worldwide and
included in various publications.

In 2012 Buck received a grant from INTACH - Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage.
He used this to study Indian miniature painting under the tutelage of master painter Ajay Sharma.

He is now based at his studio in Camberwell. He also runs workshops and has been a visiting
lecturer at various schools and institutions. ‘My work is essentially an exploration of Nature and a
celebration of life and beauty. I’m far more comfortable painting this sentiment than I am saying
it. I paint in order to explore, to seek truth and find joy in the process.’

Jung Byun is a London based hand embroidery artist. Graduating from the RSN’s Future Tutors
programme with distinction in 2019, Jung had previously graduated with a First-Class Honours
Degree in Clothing and Textiles in 1993 and spent several years working as a fashion trend
forecaster, fashion reporter and organic clothing trader.

Being a passionate art lover and quilter, Jung decided to develop her interests further and embark
on a second career as a teacher of hand embroidery. Throughout her time at the Royal School of
Needlework, she had a chance to collaborate with high-profile artists such as the renowned Neo
Pop Artist Philip Colbert.

Jung also carried out the Silk Shading demonstration at the Chertsey Museum for A Stitch in Time
embroidery exhibition. As well as teaching Day Classes and the Certificate & Diploma, Jung has
taught the RSN Family Stitch and school workshops, and at the Knitting & Stitching Show. Her
hand embroidery pieces have been exhibited at the RSN’s exhibitions and at the Knitting &
Stitching shows. Her appliqué piece of Hampton Court Palace was published in Made in Britain
magazine and her silk shading animal piece “Happy” was featured in Korean airline inflight
magazine, Morning Calm. Recently, she received prestigious worshipful company of borderer
award from Hand & Lock annual hand embroidery competition for her peacock hand mirror in
November 2019.

Jung received a grant from British Korean society in 2020 for her research about Korean
embroidery and contribution to a cultural exchange between the two countries.

Alessandro Cancian is both an academic and amateur perfumier. He is a Senior Research
Associate in the Qur’anic Studies unit at The Institute of Ismaili Studies, London. He completed a
Ph.D. at the University of Siena in Anthropology, concentrating on the Cultural Anthropology of
Muslim Societies and the Anthropology of Religion, with a work on the Shi‘ite theological colleges
(hawza ‘ilmiyya) in Syria. He is a review editor for the Journal of Shi‘a Islamic Studies and has
edited and published articles and papers, contributed book chapters and encyclopaedia entries
and lectures.

Dr Cancian’s areas of expertise and interest includes the intellectual history of Shi‘ism, Shi‘ite
Sufism in early modern times and the anthropology of Islam, Shic ism and modern Iran. He is
currently working on the Shi‘ite mystical exegesis of the Qur’an, its influences and reception in
modern times, and the sources of religious authority in contemporary Shi‘ism. His monograph on
Shi‘ite Sufi exegesis in nineteenth-century Iran is due to be published in 2020. Dr. Cancian is also
an amateur perfumer and he is translating a pre-modern treatise on perfume-making penned by
an Iranian master of the Shaykhi School.

Emma Clark designs gardens with a fundamentally spiritual and holistic outlook, undertaking
them for private clients and public institutions, both in the UK and abroad. She specialises mainly
in Islamic gardens, focusing on contemporary interpretations of traditional principles with
naturalistic planting schemes and sustainability at the heart of her practice. Of particular note are
her designs for the garden at the new Cambridge Central Mosque and the Carpet Garden at HRH
the Prince of Wales’ country house, Highgrove.

She is senior tutor on the Masters Visual Islamic and Traditional Arts Programme at The Princes
Foundation School of Traditional Arts, London, where she focuses on teaching the universal and
timeless principles of sacred and traditional art. She lectures internationally on various aspects
of the Islamic garden. Clark has published four books: The Arts of Islamic Garden: ‘Underneath
Which Rivers Flow’, The Symbolism of Islamic Garden; and two children’s books, Mehmet the
Conqueor and Sinan the Architect.

Rachel Dein studied Fine Art at Middlesex University 1989-91, followed by a propmaking
apprenticeship at the English National Opera. She worked freelance for the Royal Opera House,
the Globe, West End theatres and museums. Rachel has been showing her artwork for the past
seven years at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show. She was artist-in-residence at the National Trust’s
Hidcote Manor Gardens in 2018/19. Commissions include Raymond Blanc’s restaurant Jardin

Blanc, Huishan Zhang’s Mayfair boutique, Hide restaurant in Piccadilly, and for Lord and Lady
Northampton’s new hotel in Castle Ashby.

Her work has been published in Elle Decoration, House & Garden, Vogue, Architectural Digest,
Gardens Illustrated, Period Living, Country Life, Daily Telegraph, Martha Stewart Living, Irish
Times. Recent books that feature her work include ‘In Bloom’, ‘Cast’ and ‘The Botanical Bible’.
Previous exhibitions venues include The Cambridge Darkroom Gallery, Ben Uri Gallery,
Hampstead School of Art. Rachel’s botanical pieces are held in collections around the world.

Mohammad Barrangni Fashtami is an illustrator and printmaker originally from Iran and based in
the UK. Barrangi’s work combines elements of Persian calligraphy, storytelling, text, and touches
of humour. Using a unique creative process, with handmade traditional calligraphy pens and a
blend of mark-marking styles, Barrangi creates both small pieces and often expands these to large
scale murals. Recent projects and achievements include a strategic commission from Unlimited,
2019, commissioning Who Are We? At Tate Exchange, London 2018, Prize Winner at the Sharjah
Book Authority 2019 and finalist in the Bologna Children’s Book Fair award 2018. Mohammad is
also a Paralympic champion of the 100 and 200 metres, winning four universal medals in both Gold
and Silver at the World Championships in Switzerland, Tunisia and Asian Paralympics of China.

Sharmina Haq is a visual artist inspired by sacred Islamic art ornamentation and is a keen advocate
of using traditional tools, techniques and methods in her work. Her artwork ranges from painting
Islamic geometry compositions to traditional and contemporary floral illumination. Her interest in
Islamic arts and crafts turned into a passion for analysing historic geometric patterns and
drawing the complex yet structured designs by hand with a compass and straight edge. More
recently she is investigating paper folding techniques to derive the same Islamic geometric
patterns. Both hand drawing and paper folding are ancient art forms encompassing a sacred
nature of order, structure and balance using an iterative process of laying down an intricate, yet
unseen grid, from which the seen pattern is revealed.

Originally born in Uganda, Haq moved to London as a young child and now lives in Berkshire. She
is largely self-taught, complimented with courses at the Princes School of Traditional Arts, Sacred
Art of Geometry and other international study. She prepares her own paint from gold and other
precious metals for illumination, often makes pigments from plants roots, berries, minerals and
natural earths and explores natural paper preparation techniques. She has exhibited in London,
Yorkshire and in Aligarth, North India. Haq leads occasional workshops at SOAG and Ardington
Arts School and balances her art career with working part-time in local government.

Yasmin Hayat graduated from Central Saint Martins before specialising in the arts of the Middle
East at the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts where she was awarded a first class
degree. Inspired by her Syrian heritage, Hayat has developed a language of painting derived from
an old Arabic style, incorporating Indo-Persian techniques.

Hayat works with natural pigments crafting a unique palette made from minerals, plants and earth.
These tactile and luminous colours result in a dimensional finish which transform and reflect, just
like the stories being depicted. In 2016 Hayat was awarded the Albukhary scholarship. In 2018, she
received the Kairo’s award presented by HRH Prince Charles. Hayat has led masterclasses at
institutions worldwide including the British Museum, the Watts gallery and the Al Burda Festival in
Abu Dhabi. Her work has been acquired by international private collections and has been featured
in international publications including the Arab World Institute in Paris.

Zarah Hussain has spent many years perfecting the traditional techniques for creating
mathematically precise, geometric art and then adapting them to produce unique works with a
contemporary resonance across a range of disciplines. Her work crosses many forms including
digital art, painting and sculpture.

Hussain has exhibited at the Barbican, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Sharjah Art Museum
(UAE), the William Morris Gallery and Halle 14 in Leipzig, Germany.

She has completed public art commissions for the Mayor of London, the Royal London Hospital,
Sotheby’s, the Barnaby Festival and the British Council. Her new exhibition of paintings and a
digital installation titled Breath opens at the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts USA
in December 2020. She will also be producing a touring solo show of new sculptural works and a
light installation at Gallery Oldham in Spring 2021. Hussain has received the Mosaic Award for Art
and Culture presented by HRH the Prince of Wales and been nominated for the Jameel Prize at
the Victoria and Albert Museum. Her work is held in national and international collections. Zarah
Hussain lives and works in London.

Jane Lee McCracken was born in Edinburgh and is an artist and designer who constructs intricate
multi-layered Biro drawings, sculptures and installations. Her meticulous drawings take several
months to research and make, often incorporating complex and symbolic drawn layers that evoke
a cinematic quality. Her art is a tapestry of images bringing together personal possessions, film
references, people and animals in her life, particularly her dog and muse. She creates memorial
narratives of lives lived, both human and animal, relating them back to and ways of life and
environments lost.

Based in Northumberland, McCracken has exhibited in group and solo exhibitions both nationally
and internationally and is a UK designer at Wolf & Badger. In 2018 Jane founded Where Did All
the Animals Go?, a global art and environmental education project in partnership with
international wildlife charity Born Free. With the process of drawing as the central communication
tool, this project aims to raise global awareness of the importance of conservation and
preservation through giving children, communities and wildlife a voice. She has recently installed
Chimpanzee Community mural at BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. In 2021 Jane will create a
mural in the Living Planet Gallery at the Great North Museum featuring Biro drawings of
endangered species created in her workshops by children from across the globe.

Karen Nicol is a London-based mixed media and embroidery textile designer/artist working in
fashion, interiors and gallery with a London based design and production studio established for
over twenty-five years. She specialises in Irish, Cornelly, Multihead, beading and hand embroidery.

Creating concepts and designs, Karen produces embroidered textiles for ready-to-wear and
couture. She has worked with many fashion design houses including Schiaparelli, Alexander
McQueen, Jasper Conran and Giles Deacon. Karen has designed and produced interior textiles
for clients such as the King of Qatar, the Pope, Estee Lauder and Gwyneth Paltrow, also creating
her own label collections of home pieces for companies including Anthropologie, Pottery Barn
and Designers Guild.

Since 2010 Nicol’s large embroidered, painted and sculpted art pieces have been exhibited and
sold in galleries and art fairs all over the world with solo shows in London, Paris and New York. In
2015 Karen was made an RDI, a Royal Designer for industry, one of only 200 in the world.

Karen was founder, senior lecturer and visiting professor of the Mixed Media MA degree course
at the Royal College of Art, London. Currently Nicol is artist in residence at DeMontfort University,
honorary fellow at the Royal Society of Arts and continues to lecture in colleges around the world.

Olga Prinku was born in Moldova and lives in North Yorkshire, UK. Prinku studied graphic design
as a mature student at Cumbria Institute of the Arts. Inspired by her hobbies of wreath-making
and knitting, she came up with the concept of flowers-on-tulle embroidery in 2016. She has since
continued to develop techniques for using plants in embroidery and her personal style as a floral
artist.

Olga has collaborated with brands including Anthropologie and Swarovski. She has displayed her
work at the Stitch Festival (London, 2020), Interfilière Paris (2020) and the Aspex Gallery
(Portsmouth, 2019). Her work has been featured in a wide range of print magazines (including
Embroidery Magazine, Simply Sewing, What Women Create, and Maison Creative) and books
(including Silence, Ca Pousse! Creer Sa Deco Nature by Carole Talil and Flower Ladies by Karin
Heimberger-Preisler). Olga is currently working on a book to be published by Quadrille in 2021.

Shorsh Saleh is a Kurdish mixed-media artist. He deals with the subjects of migration, borders and
identity through his work. Saleh’s works employ the traditional techniques of miniature painting in
a contemporary context. As an experienced Persian carpet maker many of his paintings are
inspired by the symbolic motifs used in traditional carpets, combined with contemporary imagery.
He also uses found objects to make large scale sculptural works.

Born in Kurdistan, Saleh studied MA Traditional Arts at The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts,
London, where he has been teaching carpet weaving since 2015. He has also been teaching at the
Museum of Islamic Art in Doha since 2017. Saleh has exhibited in Germany, Iraqi Kurdistan,
Lebanon, UK and the USA.

His work was part of the Prince & Patron exhibition at Buckingham Palace, 2018. His solo
exhibitions include Remembering Yezidis, Faculty of Human Sciences, Iraqi Kurdistan, 2015 and
Always Colour, Always Rain, Iraqi Kurdistan, 2000. Saleh was Artist in Residence at the Migration
Museum, London, April 2019. His works are held in the Royal Collection Trust, the British Museum,
the Bagari Foundation and the Islamic Art Museum, Malaysia. He is currently showing his works at
Refugees; Forced to Flee exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, London.

Geoff Sample is a sound-artist based in Northumberland. After graduating in Classics at Oxford,
Sample spent 15 years in music, firstly as performer/composer, gradually concentrating on
recording and production. Developing from this, he began recording natural soundscapes and
birdsong and took a Certificate in Ecology and Conservation at Birkbeck. Over the next 15 years
he released a series of CD albums on his Wildsong label and produced a series of book/audio
guides for HarperCollins (including the best-selling Collins Bird Songs & Calls).

Over the last decade he has increasingly been involved in arts collaborations (Dawn Chorus with
Marcus Coates, Away with the Birds with Hanna Tuulikki, Singing the World with Mike Collier &
Bennett Hogg), as well as solo commissions (Hayward, London Fieldworks). Radio work includes
contributions to Tweet of the Day (radio programme of the year 2014), The Verb, Inside Science,
and most recently producing and presenting the series A Birdsong Garden - all for the BBC.

Soraya Syed is a classically trained calligrapher, artist and filmmaker of growing international
renown. Born in London, Syed studied at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design before
going on to read Arabic and History of Art & Archaeology at SOAS. It was during her MA at the
Prince’s School of Traditional Arts that her love of Arabic calligraphy fermented.

Her work has been exhibited and collected all over the world and she is the first Briton to receive
the rarely bestowed icazetname or calligrapher’s license from Istanbul. Syed’s practice is a process
of disciplined freedom; she enjoys the constant tension between remaining true to her classical
training while exploring new possibilities. She seeks to push the boundaries of traditional Arabic
calligraphy through a range of media. She has been commissioned by the likes of Google, the
British Museum and the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Ross P Taylor blends historical references, contemporary documentation and improvisation in his
work. His work is process-driven and rich with interior and exterior character. Taylor’s process
involves drawing imagery (line) onto the paper, invisibly at first and working over it later with

coloured pencils. This transforms the intention and the accuracy of the original image while
simultaneously revealing it as white lines within the overlaid drawing. The indented original line
remains a form of blind scaffolding, around which the final composition must stand. The outcome
both subsumes its initiation and reveals it on its surface.

Originally from Northumberland, England, Ross P Taylor is based in the Macedon Ranges. He
holds a Bachelor of Fine Art (Painting/Art History) from the University of Newcastle Upon Tyne
(UK). He has also studied at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunste in Munich under Professor
Nikolaus Lang. Taylor has been a recipient of numerous grants and commissions from Arts Council
England. He has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions in Australia, Germany, Japan, the USA
and the UK, and has held artist residencies in England and at Art Space Tetra, Japan. His works
have been acquired by Bendigo Art Gallery and are held in private collections in Australia and the
UK.

About the Aga Khan Centre Gallery
Aga Khan Centre Gallery is a place of education, insight and cultural exchange and is home to a
changing programme of exhibitions which aim to create a better understanding of Islam and
Muslim cultures, past and present. The gallery programme connects and resonates with the work
of the two institutes and foundation based at the centre: Aga Khan Foundation UK, Aga Khan
University Institute of Muslim Civilisations and The Institute of Ismaili Studies. It also connects with
the work of the Aga Khan Development Network, including the Aga Khan Trust for Culture and the
Aga Khan Museum in Toronto. The Aga Khan Gallery aims to contribute to the cultural offer across
London as well as nationally and internationally.

10 Handyside Street
London
N1C 4DN
Opening times: By Appointment Only. Tickets available via Eventbrite.
https://www.agakhancentre.org.uk/gallery/

      @agakhancentregallery		 @AgaKhanCentreLondon		                              @AKCGallery

#MakingParadise

Bibliography
1. “Inauguration of the Aga Khan Park, Toronto | Aga Khan Development Network”. Akdn.org,
2021. Online. Internet. 19 Mar. 2021. Available: https://www.akdn.org/speech/his-highness-aga-
khan/inauguration-aga-khan-park-toronto