Ennyman's Territory: Discussing Symmetry's Portal with Artist Margarida Sardinha of Portugal 14/11/2017, 22)17

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Ennyman's Territory
ARTS, CULTURE AND OTHER LIFE OBSESSIONS

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2015 ABOUT ME

Ed Newman
Discussing Symmetry's Portal with Artist Margarida Sardinha of Portugal Writer, artist, harmonica
player, adman
I've been following the work of Have been known online as
Lisbon-born artist Margardia Ennyman since the mid-
Sardinha since I first discovered and 1990s.
interviewed her in late 2010. Ennyman's Territory
Perhaps it was our shared interest The Many Faces of Ennyman
in Magical Realism that captured My Original Website
my attention. In our first interview I
was impressed with the breadth and View my complete profile
depth of her studies and experience.
Since that time she has produced GIFTS FOR LITTLE ONES
several award-winning works
including HyperLightness ad absurdum and London Memory multi+city.

To best appreciate this interview and the work it discusses, I recommend beginning
with yesterday's Introduction to the Alhambra.

EN: How did you first become aware of the remarkable designs in the Alhambra?

Margarida Sardinha: The Alhambra is

embedded in European culture. Thus I cannot
tell the first time I heard of it for it was a long Perfect for Baby Showers & Infant
time ago. But the first time I visited the site Birthdays
was quite recently in 2011 and I was
overwhelmed by its beauty and geometrical CAN'T READ MY LIPS?
splendour. There are only 17 modes of
geometrically dividing an Euclidian
bidimensional plane and these are shown in
the extraordinary Islamic designs of the
Alhambra.

EN: It seems evident that earnest artisans in

both the Western and Islamic traditions have
had spiritual aims in their work (Sistine Chapel, THEN READ MY BOOKS.
for example) but they have approached this in
utterly different ways. Can you speak to these
NOW MORE THAN
two different approaches, the representational and non-representational?
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MS: Our Western Biblical passage “Thou shalt not The views expressed on this blogspot
make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of are mine alone and do not reflect the
any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the views of my employer.
earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the
earth:” (Exodus 20:4-6) and the Quranic words "No FREE EBOOK FOR IPADS & IPHONE 6
vision can grasp Him, but His grasp is over all vision:
He is above all comprehension, yet is acquainted with
all things." (The Noble Quran, 6:103), and "Remember Abraham said: 'O my Lord!

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Ennyman's Territory: Discussing Symmetry's Portal with Artist Margarida Sardinha of Portugal 14/11/2017, 22)17

make this city one of peace and security: and preserve me and my sons from
worshipping idols.'" (The Noble Quran, 14:35) both forbid the figurative representation
of God but for some reason later in the Bible the Solomon’s Temple is described as
having cherubim and other figurative artifacts. Thus artists used this as a starting point,
nevertheless this does not mean they did not use geometry. Geometry is at the heart of
any religious art and the Western one is no exception as explains Charles Bouleau in
his book The Painter’s Secret Geometry. In his book he explains how Western artists
concealed sacred geometry underneath a veil of figurative depictions and the example
of the Sistine Chapel is a good example of that; for Michelangelo even distorted the
images according to perspective and gave geometrical symbolic or occult meaning to
each of the sections.

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EN: Is Symmetry’ Portal your
response to what you encountered at
the Alhambra, or something more? MY NEW BOOK

MS: My work circles comparative

religion so Symmetry’s Portal
conveys the Islamic spiritual
dimension. There is within the Islamic
spiritual universe a dimension that
can be called 'Abrahamic
Pythagoreanism,' or the prospect of
seeing numbers and figures as keys
to the structure of the cosmos and as
symbols of the archetypal world, and
also in how the world is conceived as
the God's creation in the sense of
Abrahamic monotheisms. It is this
possibility within the Islamic intellectual universe, with none or very little outside
influences, which allowed Islam to develop a similar mathematical philosophy to the
FOR HOMESCHOOLERS
Platonic-Pythagorean tradition of antiquity but with a totally sacred characteristic. It is
also this innate element of Islam’s structure that allowed the creation of a sacred art of
an essentially geometric nature, and natural sciences that sought to penetrate into the TRANSLATE
very structure of physical existence, not by penetrating through the molecule and the Select Language
atom, but by ascending to the world of mathematical archetypes to uncover the key Powered by Translate
structures that are reflected in the heart of matter. Islamic art is essentially a way to
ennoble geometrically matter united by calligraphic forms that incorporate the word of SEARCH THIS BLOG
God as revealed in the book, the Holy Qur'an.
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EN: Please describe Symmetry’s Portal, the work you have created.
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MS: Islamic spirituality had to develop a sacred art in Posts
accordance with its own form and revealed message and also
its essence. The doctrine of unity, which is central to the Comments
Islamic revelation coinciding with a nomadic spirituality that
Islam made its own, has brought to light an aniconic art where MAKES A GREAT GIFT: CLICK 2 BUY
the spiritual world is not reflected in the sensible world
through various iconic images, but through geometry and
rhythm, arabesques and calligraphy that directly reflect the
celestial worlds and finally the supernal sun of Divine Unity.
Symmetry’s Portal comprises 30 works and a 3D film that
deconstruct symmetry and generate illusory semblances.
Thus, Symmetry 's Portal is a body of work of optical illusions where the symmetric and
random are diluted in three-dimensional works originated from two-dimensional planes.
Hence, symmetry’s isometrism is deconstructed or complemented by three-
dimensional polyhedra where the image’s similitude evokes various illusory
spatiotemporal dimensions. The inferences of such structures are also related to our
dual understanding in the form of
A REMARKABLE TALE FROM THE LAND
Absolute = Random = Symbolic Continuum Relative Determinate OF PODD

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Ennyman's Territory: Discussing Symmetry's Portal with Artist Margarida Sardinha of Portugal 14/11/2017, 22)17

BLOG ARCHIVE
Where the cancelling-out of the ► 2017 (336)
respective mind effected ► 2016 (370)
differentiations results in a non-
▼ 2015 (339)
polarized symbolic continuum. This
► December (20)
symbolic continuum is not static for
it is a flux of consciousness that ► November (14)
albeit relative to each individual it is ► October (26)
absolute in essence – a paradox in ► September (32)
itself that implies the self-referential
► August (30)
framework of the individual and
his/her correlation with absolute or ► July (29)
innate forms. Thus, they refer to individual spatiotemporal events in the fabric of nature ► June (29)
where immanence and transcendence are undifferentiated. This multidimensional ► May (29)
interlace lies both in three-dimensional photographic works of large format as well as in
► April (31)
the experimental film that constitute the showcase. The thirty works and the film
"Symmetry's Portal" which comprise the exhibition were devised based on the ► March (34)
geometric-mathematical descriptions of Keith Critchlow -- where the study of Islamic ► February (32)
patterns is analysed via metaphysical and cosmological principles --, Marcus du ▼ January (33)
Sautoy and Roger Penrose. Five Minutes with Singer/Songwriter
Mary Bue
****
Drumroll Please... Dylan's Sinatra
Symmetry's Portal will be open to the public through February 15 at the Tribute, Shadow...
Centro Ismaili in Lisbon. Directions to the Exposição.
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Posted by Ed Newman at 11:09 PM Party and the A...
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