In one last (?) exploration of indigo blue as an expression of mourning and darkness, this sequential piece is actually about the darkness lifting, and coming out of the dark: an anabasis. Symbolically completed on the Winter Solstice when the light begins to return, it is made up of the two stitched words Sabr صبر and Shukr شكر: perseverance for hard times, and gratitude for good times.
These dual qualities have a particular importance in Islam, going back to this hadith:
“How wonderful is the affair of the believer. All of his affairs are good: if something good happens to him, he is grateful (shukr), and that is good for him; and if something harmful happens to him, he is patient (sabr), and that is good for him.”
Sabr in white stands out against the darkness, but as the balance shifts, it starts fading while Shukr becomes more visible, until it in turn stands out against the light background. And vice-versa…
While “out of the dark” was very much the thought I was working with, once the piece was laid out, the meaning was more ambiguous. Depending on your dominant reading direction, the progression could be read as emerging from darkness, or on the contrary descending into it (katabasis). Turn the whole thing 180 degrees, and this situation is reversed, but not nullified. The reading, in the end, depends on the observer: the glass is either half-full or half-empty.
