Feature on Islamic Artist - Samir Malik

For Emel Magazine - August 2008 - issue 47

I am helping Samir Malik collect his pots of ink and instruments whilst chasing sheets of paper being blown amongst brambles as we settle down in the allotment that surrounds his cottage studio in Ealing. Immediately the interviewee is coming across as humble as the surroundings and the haphazard creative environment soon blends into the in-depth conversation that unfolds.

He is discussing how being in a state of uncertainty doesn’t feel uncomfortable for him as it’s where lies inspiration and creativity and he wouldn’t have it any other way. Funnily enough he also relates how the discomfort one day had him calling up a wealthy and well known Australian artist asking for advice on how to charge millions for work! The innocent pursuit of a material wealth bought a powerful immaterial truth with Samir being responded to with: “thousands of years from now, people will still see as much relevance in your art as they do today”.

Samir is globally recognized for his art work which inspire wonderment, are expressive in an avante garde form and innovatively focus not only on Arabic text but Islamic symbols also. What I understand of Islamic Caligraphy is that it is an aspect of Islamic Art that has evolved alongside the religion of Islam and the Arabic language using geometry. It is the art of writing which gives form to signs in an expressive and harmonious manner. Arabic calligraphy is regarded as the expression of the divine with a strong parallel tradition to the Aramaic and Hebrew scholars and it was in Damascus where Samir Malik took his first steps in learning this ancient art.

Born in Nairobi on 2nd January 1970, Samir came to the UK in 1975 and at the age of six he was painting with oils, at the age of eight he begun printing and once he was ten years old his father, in a well meaning sort of way, confiscated all his art ‘stuff’ with the intention that Samir should become a more conventional type of professional. True to his fathers’ wishes, once Samir emerged out of education he embarked upon a career in Osteopathic medicine.

In adulthood a desire for travel and a change of surroundings took him to Germany where he lived for 10 years practicing Osteopathy amongst an artist community which cosmically reignited his interest in art. Iin January 2003, he left his life of form in Germany which entailed an impressive apartment and thousands of books, and flew to Damascus. Hunger and existential abandon led him to study Hebrew in Jerusalem. It was there that he had his first and long-time-coming ‘light-bulb-moment’.

Upon the mention of the arrival of a friend’s cousin named ‘Fahdi’, Samir immediately became curious and reflective about the meaning of this name; ‘he who heals the hearts of man through the will of God’. Upon learning the meaning he realized his purpose once again, after years of departing from his artistic talents, this is what he wanted to accomplish through his art.

Shortly after, he was drinking his daily bad coffee in a souk shop when his sister recommended he study calligraphy at Damascus University. Open to opportunities, he began and was immediately hooked. Although it appeared as if he wasn’t excelling at first, his tutors saw great potential in his ability. For a duration of six months he committed 8 hours per day to learning. Completing his study he felt that any art he would create would have to be something new since he wanted to show people something they hadn’t seen before.

Historically, Islamic Art has been used to express an experience of the divine using geometry and calligraphy. Samirs’ aim has been to revive the spirit of classical art for contemporary society in a contemporary form. His artistic expression is a direct result of his personal journey and reflects, as he so often puts it, ‘an investigation’. His intention behind the art is a desire to know humanity, which he does through Islam, and the creative expression (his artwork) are his findings. Since 2002 his collection of artworks entitled ‘Fahdi’ have continued to express this.

Commentators ask why he writes and rewrites ‘God’ so much; it’s because he is in search to know what God is for him. He is engaged with the process of creation and “this investigation is an evolving one which forms part of the creative process” where he’ll see colours, form, shapes or types of canvass. He’ll begin a piece and rework it until it feels right rather than just looking right.

“You can’t touch the divine but you can feel it” and when painting Samir fuses different artistic traditions such as Chinese calligraphy into his work. Appealing to a global audience and in part influenced by many global characters from his travels, he sees his work forcing people to re-evaluate and ask pertinent questions such as ‘Who are we?’; ‘Where do we come from?’; ‘Where are we going to?’; the same questions he asks as well.

These aren’t however abstract concepts or ideas that he investigates since he is relating everything back to Islam and the message of the Qur’aan. When he started his series of “Bismillah Irahmaniraheem” he engaged with the ideas of compassion, peace, love and mercy which he says are central to Islam.

“The prophet (saw) had compassion, love and mercy and being a Muslim means to submit to something and the context that you live your life in becomes ‘Bismillah Irrahmaaniraheem’ - mercy and compassion for everyone”….”We can become flippant, so I want my art to be like a doorway into our spirituality”.

Non-Muslim clients who cannot read Arabic have been able to identify and recognize the message behind the form. Instances like this drive Samir to want to paint without form, to express spontaneously and dynamically. Illustrating this idea was a time when he was inspired to capture an image of Imam Ali after hearing a story about the formidable character on the battlefield. Wanting to but struggling to capture him in a painting, an intensity drove Samir wild with his instruments and paint. When the canvass was dry his mother looked at it, not knowing a thing about it, and immediately observed “there’s a man on a horse with a sword”.

The symbol of the Kabbah has recently been quite a poignant consideration. He believes that the investigation of this holds the key for him to go deeper into spirituality. When he went on Hajj in 2001 he wanted to be part of the ‘thawaf’ where he always saw all being equal but individually special and part of a whole. It was saddening at the time since he was going there with so many expectations and now laughingly he admits how severely let down and disappointed he was when he experienced Muslims pushing and shoving him whilst praying, being blackmailed and cheated out of a package tour he paid for.

He now sees great beauty in such imperfection and in that imperfection he reflects that “we can have terrible wrongdoings but unimaginable beauty”. He relates verses from the Qur’aan when the Angels ask the Creator why he is creating man from such inferior matter (clay). Samir realizes how he forms part of the imperfect humanity and that he does not wish to judge himself or anybody else but just wishes to strive and express.

“There is a hunger and movement in the art world since people are curious about who Muslims are…We are part of this society but we are still foreign…what does it mean to be Muslim? We represent it by just being Muslim…we are creating who Muslim’s will be for humanity”.

A future project is something that he is in the process of crafting out whereby he would bring together a collective of Muslim artists from all over the UK and possibly the world with a theme “we come in peace”. This would introduce the Muslim community to the mainstream which is currently governed by negative stereotypes.

Samir has been commissioned by organizations such as IslamExpo, The Muslim Literary Society, The Muslim Council of Britain and The Big Issue Foundation. Apart from accepting commissions he is has been happily occupied with teaching for over four years and loves giving people the space to allow them to investigate who they are through art. Creating opportunities for people to find themselves in a creative space where they are free to express themselves is why he wants to always focus on teaching and giving back.

Samir acknowledges the great responsibility he feels in being an Islamic artist. It is a pivotal time since “non-Muslims are looking to Muslims to learn more about our faith and what we stand for”. Not necessarily waving the Muslim flag, but by being Muslim and existing Samir states how we are an expression of Islam and whether you desire it or not we represent Islam to the curious masses.

His art captures the message of Islam which is about humanity and creation and I believe he will continue to be instrumental in sharing this message with the world. To have a piece of his work hanging on your wall would mean having a reminder of an eternal, evolving and sincere human search to learn more of humanity’s purpose.

Currently exhibits every Sunday at The Bayswater Road Gallery, London, pitch 34.
‘FAHDI’ http://www.samirmalik.com/