KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

Kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

Nimah Muwak­il-Za­kuri has an ob­ses­sion with cir­cles. How­ev­er, the self-taught artist is un­sure of its ac­tu­al be­gin­nings.

“I do re­mem­ber in my 20s be­ing fas­ci­nat­ed with the psy­chol­o­gist Carl Jung, he the­o­rised that the cir­cle was rep­re­sen­ta­tive of man’s psy­che or even his soul and that in art, ar­chi­tec­ture, and spir­i­tu­al prac­tices, the cir­cle is used as a way to rep­re­sent whole­ness, har­mo­ny, and bal­ance,” she says.

“The process of cre­at­ing cir­cles or man­dalas filled with in­tri­cate pat­terns is al­so a high­ly med­i­ta­tive process for me, which is one of the most ful­fill­ing parts of my ex­is­tence. I wish every­one could feel this.”

Dur­ing the month of Ra­madan, the artist is work­ing on a new piece, which en­tails 30 small cir­cles, one for each day of fast­ing.

“On each cir­cle, I write a prayer or a dua from the Qur’an and I am us­ing pat­terns in­spired by Pales­tin­ian em­broi­dery (Tatreez) on each cir­cle,” she says.

“When all 30 cir­cles are even­tu­al­ly brought to­geth­er, they will form the map of Pales­tine. The piece is ded­i­cat­ed to the peo­ple of Pales­tine, their re­silience, and their re­sis­tance.

“I strong­ly be­lieve that it is my du­ty as a hu­man and an artist to use what­ev­er tal­ent has been giv­en to me by God to speak out against what is hap­pen­ing to not on­ly my fel­low broth­ers and sis­ters in faith, but most im­por­tant­ly, my fel­low hu­man be­ings.”

Muwak­il-Za­kuri’s cre­ative pas­sion start­ed at a very young age.

“Ever since I was grow­ing up, I had a keen in­ter­est in any­thing artis­tic and cre­ative. Most chil­dren do, I be­lieve,” she says.

“But some­thing hap­pens, and we are ei­ther dis­cour­aged by those around us or chan­nelled in­to a dif­fer­ent path. In my case, I was en­cour­aged by my par­ents and grand­par­ents to pur­sue my cre­ative en­deav­ours, and I am for­ev­er grate­ful for that.”

She cred­its the cre­ativ­i­ty and in­no­va­tion of her moth­er and the de­ceased as well. “There are many in­stances I re­call as a child of my par­ents do­ing crafts and mak­ing things to sell to ‘make ends meet’,” she says.

“My moth­er cur­rent­ly has a brand of chil­dren’s cloth­ing and al­so makes var­i­ous beau­ti­ful and unique ob­jects and ac­ces­sories out of dis­card­ed or re­cy­cled ma­te­ri­als for re­sale. My fa­ther, who is no longer in this world, used to do macramé, paint­ings, and draw­ings, and he made dry flower arrange­ments from the most un­usu­al of ma­te­ri­als, such as dried or­ange peels.”

The se­nior cu­ra­tor at the Cen­tral Bank of Trinidad and To­ba­go over­sees the op­er­a­tions of the bank’s mu­se­um and pub­lic art col­lec­tion.

“I for­mal­ly trained in art his­to­ry and muse­ol­o­gy in San­ti­a­go de Cu­ba, Cu­ba,” she says.

“I have not for­mal­ly trained as an artist, I would be con­sid­ered self-taught. I have been work­ing in the mu­se­ums lo­cal­ly since 2007. In terms of my art prac­tice, I restart­ed se­ri­ous­ly in 2016 af­ter a life-chang­ing ex­pe­ri­ence. It was my way of com­ing home to my­self and find­ing heal­ing.”

The cu­ra­tor be­lieves artists have al­ways played an im­por­tant role in T&T.

“In guid­ing the way we see the world and our place in it,” she says

“It has been a carv­ing out of our col­lec­tive colo­nial his­to­ries and trau­mas in or­der to con­tin­u­al­ly move to­wards a so­ci­ety that not on­ly rep­re­sents us in the deep­est ways but forces us to look at those rep­re­sen­ta­tions and make the nec­es­sary changes and ad­just­ments that will al­low all of us to live here in peace.

“This is not just how I see art, but this is my hope for art in this place we call home. Artists who do this nec­es­sary work need to be pro­tect­ed and sup­port­ed at all costs.”

Muwak­il-Za­kuri’s work can be found on In­sta­gram @art.by.the.riv­er.

Her work will be on dis­play at the Is­lam­ic Artists Col­lec­tive’s (IAC) sec­ond group show in Au­gust. The IAC’s in­au­gur­al ex­hi­bi­tion was held in Ju­ly 2023. The IAC can be found on In­sta­gram at @is­lami­cartists.col­lec­tive