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(Video link here.) This afternoon Holton Rower texted: We’re at the MET on the roof. You have to see the installation. It is fu*king awesome!

So we ran to the Metropolitan Museum’s website and found this illuminating video and a bit about Imran Qureshi:

Three years ago Qureshi began to use red acrylic in his installations in response to brutal bombings in Lahore. While many of the world’s citizens have become accustomed to almost daily attacks on their streets, such cruelty striking so close to home provoked a deep response in his work. “Yes, these forms stem from the effects of violence,” he said of his visceral blooms of paint. “They are mingled with the color of blood, but, at the same time, this is where a dialogue with life, with new beginnings and fresh hope starts.” Given the devastating recent events in Boston, Qureshi’s theme of tragedy giving rise to a blossoming of new growth is all the more poignant as a message of recovery and regeneration.

The installation is called “And How Many Rains Must Fall Before the Stains Are Washed Clean,” named from a line in a poem by the Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

imran qureshi MET exhibition

Just looking at photos of the work we see that they are Painful. Hopeful. Heartening. Real.

They echo our strong belief that art/making/the creative process can transmute the darkest of events into light — that every moment holds that possibility.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Hyla Skopitz.
The Metropolitan Museum of Art/Hyla Skopitz.

We marvel at the valiant work some people take on…

 

Related posts: the dalai lama on $$, loss, “failure”
boston: spirit and bravery as antidote
bill murray’s life lessons
batali’s beautiful ‘fuck you’: a tale of 9/11

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2 replies on “i qureshi’s met installation: tragedy —>hope —> growth

  1. I know you’ve seen this – it is such glorious improv. http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=UJrSUHK9Luw
    Thank you for re-posting the Babbos story – I always feel like I’m sitting there with you when I read it. And the fierce generosity of Mario Batali that evening is so humane.

    Have a wonderful week Sally – I cherish your posts every day.
    Best,
    Linda

  2. Yeah, we posted that WONDROUS video in the past. It is well worth revisiting. Yeah, Mario totally rose to the occasion during 9/11 (and other times).

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