Salah cycle, 2016

The timings of Salah |the Islamic prayer| are measured in accordance with the movement of the Sun relative to one’s individual locality on Earth and is perceived by the changing colours of the sky. As the Earth rotates on its axis in revolution around the Sun, this celestial arrangement theoretically unravels a succession of the occurrence of Salah across the globe, essentially creating a continual and infinite orbit of the call to prayer. I explored this sequence in the context of time, circles, silence and the landscape, which culminated in a multimedia installation, Salah Cycle.

Open from all sides, the installation invites viewers onto a 3-tiered circular platform where directional sound speakers play a layering of the Islamic call to prayer, specifically audible only at the centre of the installation. The specific locality of the sound highlights the viewer’s physical location on the globe while the circularity of the platform emanates the cyclical nature of the universe and of Salah. Here, the speakers are suspended at a 30 metre height from a 50 metre long power cable, beyond which the viewer was encouraged to engage with the sky through the glass ceiling, expanding one’s consciousness of the self relative to the cosmic.