The Anwāʼ Collection: One Pattern, Infinite Light
- CreatEVE Design
- Jul 24
- 2 min read
The Islamic Golden Age lasted roughly from the 8th to the 14th century. During that period, Arab astronomers named the stars, mapped the sky, and laid foundations that European science would build on for centuries. At the same time, in the same era, a separate and distinct art form was flourishing across the Islamic world. Tadhhib, manuscript illumination in gold and intricate geometric ornament, comes from the Arabic root dhahab. It means gold.
Two disciplines. The same era. Both working in their own language with pattern, precision, and light.
The Anwāʼ Collection begins there.
Anwāʼ is the Arabic term for the star groups used by early Arab astronomers to mark the seasons and navigate the desert. Each piece in the collection is painted in gold watercolour pigment on Stonehenge Aqua Cold Press paper, on black or on white. The gold is not decorative. It is the point. It is the material link between the astronomers who mapped the heavens and the illuminators who covered sacred manuscripts in geometric light.
The working title for the exhibition is One Pattern, Infinite Light. It came from the observation that the same geometric structure, painted in the same reflective pigment, reads completely differently depending on what it sits against. On black paper, the pattern glows. It advances. It holds the eye. On white paper, the same pattern recedes into the surface, becoming something more architectural, more restrained. One pattern. Two entirely different encounters.
Each piece in the collection is singular. There are no editions, no prints, no reproductions. What exists is what was painted, in the hours that particular quality of afternoon light came through the window and hit the surface at exactly the angle that made the refelctive pigments do what they do when the conditions are right. Create an ethereal interaction. The surface dissolves and now you are interacting with light.
This collection is growing with the intention of an interactive exhibition in a dark room with carefully positioned spotlight-lights highlighting each geometric constellation from different angles. You, the viewer, will only see the constellations if you change your perspective, requiring you to stand in the right place to immerse yourselves in Anwā’. This is the philosophy behind all of my personal collections. The simple act of changing your perspective, can have powerful outcomes. Often beautify emerges from the mot unlikely of moments.
The collection is still growing. Pieces have sold before the series was complete. If you are interested in acquiring a work from the Anwāʼ Collection or in discussing an exhibition, get in touch.
To follow the progress in real time, you can meet me on socials here:
Monnett (Europe’s new Social media platform)
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