Between the Sky and the Flower

About this event

Once, a very pious Muslim man told me his description of the wonder of the universe. He began by talking of the stars shining in the dark night sky (making big arm gestures) and moved on through distance and scale to a description of mountains, deserts, and seas (less extravagant movements of the arms), then birds, fish, animals (small hand gestures, now) and came to people, the pores in their skin, individual cells and finally, chemical elements (moving his finger tips across his palm). I was enchanted and, though I am not religious, I know that making and experiencing art has much the same sense of awe, scale and wonder.