Islamic geometric patterns | Showcase Special

hello and welcome to showcase TRT world's daily arts and culture program coming to you from Istanbul in this special edition we'll take a look at Islamic geometric patterns geometric designs have a special place in Islamic art a combination of repeated squares and circles can be found in a variety of buildings garden floors carpets and even textiles far from being mere forms of decoration these repetitive geometric designs are meant to connect the viewer to a higher state of consciousness geometric patterns calligraphy and botanical images three types of Islamic art that adorn mosques palaces and private homes dating from the eighth century all of these art forms have one thing in common they're not figurative as a monotheistic Islam discards all other deities and avoids the depiction of realistic humans and animal figures that's why craftsman used geometrical patterns as a form of decoration inspired by the art of the ancient Greeks Romans sasanian in Iran craftsmen in the Islamic world took these classical traditions and created an alternative form of decoration using only a compass to draw circles and a ruler to make lines patterns especially found in places of worship are used as a medium to glorify God they are characterized by symmetry and a freedom in the repetition and complexity they offer the possibility of infinite expansion not only are they pleasing to the eye but the delicate motifs and vibrant colors also draw you into a harmonious infinity and to inspire contemplation and unity masterpieces of this artform stretch from Spain to us Becca Stan a variety of patterns interlaced to form intricate combinations of triangles squares hexagons and stars these repeated and interlocking designs can extend endlessly this feature was also the inspiration behind much of MC Escher's work the Dutch artists came to a turning point in his work after his visit to the Alhambra Palace in Spain and today this tradition continues in workshops around the world Islamic geometric art was a major influence for Dutch artist Moritz Cornelis Escher his mathematically inspired woodcuts lithographs and mezzotints showcased the same order and repeated symmetry found in much of the architecture of the Middle East he took that and added his own flavor MC Escher the Dutch graphic artist born in 1898 in the Netherlands is mostly known for his optical illusions of ascending and descending stairs metamorphosis and reptiles although he failed his high school exams he was exceptionally talented at drawing later in life he gave up his studies in architecture and pursued graphic arts he was fascinated by the complexity of objects such as the Necker cube and the Penrose triangle his portfolio is full of lithographs wood cuts and more than 2,000 drawings and sketches he travelled extensively to observe the world around him this inspired his artistic expression which came more from his interpretation of his surroundings than his observations one trip especially influenced his latter work he was captivated by the wall patterns of Spain's Alhambra Palace this fascination with the infinity of interlocking geometric patterns inspired his hundred and thirty seven regular division drawings the art of repetitive geometric shapes can be seen of various parts of the world from the alhambra palace in Spain to the Samarkand mosque in Uzbekistan however unique these cultures are they United through similarities of the designs adorning their mosques and other buildings you the great wonders of turkey the grand structures composed by divine geometry the harmonious merging of the material and spiritual world is a speciality of me my Sonam and his students to get a deeper insight into the impeccably detailed patterns of Islamic art we look at Istanbul x' distinguished mosques but first let's get familiar with a Michelangelo of Ottoman architecture in honor of his craft chief Ottoman architect and civil engineer Mimar Sinan designed his tomb in the shape of a compass and then he decorated the walls with six fold stars like the ones that we see here the Great Architect was the mastermind behind over 300 classical Ottoman structures he was referred to as a you Klee DS of his time because of his mastery of geometry Wow it's incredible one of Sinan's greatest masterpieces is none other than the cinnamon a mosque I mean here you can actually see the geometrics synchronization and we where it's all around us everything from both the structural columns to the miniature details in both of the doors the the windows and even the walls I'm sure there's probably a lot more inside so let's take a look if architecture is music to the eye Sulaiman yeas melody is illuminating and all-embracing the minbar the platform used by the Imam to deliver sermons is adorned by delicate patterns that run on both sides originating from eight fold stars in the middle some of these large doors and even some of the window coverings in the moss if you look closely you'll see a star pattern that resembles the cosmos and some strong MERS actually believed that this was a kind of a union or maybe a direction or a connection towards the universe in the heavens beyond and when you look closer you'll see that the patterns of stars are actually some of them are Eightfold and some of them are 18 fold it's kind of interesting to find out why it was done this way well apparently there's no special reason it's just for the sake of design they are surrounded by petals that extend into infinity the scale of these compositions are supported by invisible grids that also facilitate the invention of new patterns assembles most photogenic building was the grand project of sultan ahmed the first the mosque is such a popular attraction that admission is controlled in order to preserve its sacred atmosphere let's take a look inside one of Istanbul most notable landmarks is the blue mosque it was designed by said of car mama UH one of sinan students it's the last great mosque of the Ottoman Empire's Classical period more than 20,000 handmade ceramic tiles called Iznik decorate the lower level of the interior with an array of geometric in tulip adornments traditional motives on the tiles such as cypress trees tulips roses and fruit evoke visions of a bountiful paradise the lavish use of tile decoration on the interior was the first in Imperial Ottoman mosque architecture the intensity of the tiles is punctuated with the more than 200 stained glass windows all with intricate designs bringing natural light inside the mosque the prayer hall itself was punctuated with aesthetic features providing worshipers with a beautiful environment to carry on their rituals in harmony symmetrical display of geometrical patterns date all the way back to the eighth century a rare artifact indicates this let's take a look you we will now talk to a man who sees the exploration of Islamic geometric patterns as his calling he writes books teachers workshops gives lectures and now joins us on showcase Eric Berg how did you first get into Islamic geometric designs I've been doing in a long time I mean I've been doing it for about 25 years and I started as a student in Amsterdam and I was studying political science and even though I found it interesting I thought I'm not going to find this interesting forever and I wanted to find something that I would find interesting that would challenge me that would give me an interesting life so eventually I found a book on the subject book why gentleman called Jew ba gua a French book from the 19th century and I thought this is great you know I find it really interesting there's there's arts there's history this creativity all those things so that's how I started and I wanted to learn how to make these patterns because the books just show you the result they don't show you the process so that's that's how it started really all right Eric how do you describe the logic behind this art form behind the pattern school and then for the first thing I should say there's a lot that we don't know because there is very little historical evidence on how these patterns were made for start and secondly what the motivation was for these designers to choose one pattern and not another pattern so the issue of the meaning of the patterns is a difficult one to answer you know it's it's only not the case that you only see some patterns and secular buildings and some patterns only in religious buildings you know that's that's not the case so I suppose the question of meaning you can divide into two or you can answer it in two ways if the question is did the craftsman who made these patterns in the 15th century for example in Anatolia did they choose these patterns for specific reasons - easy answers what we don't know because there's no historical evidence the other way to answer the question is do these patterns have meaning to people who asked a question now where which happens a lot also in our workshops and of course the answer is yes they do these patterns do have meaning to to to many people they represent philosophical and religious concepts to many people and yeah so in that way they do what can you tell us about the philosophically specs of the pattern I came to the UK to study Islamic geometric design and I found that there is there is a lot of focus on particular aspects or particular approach to it but what I want what I found most interesting is to try and see it from the perspective of the people who are making it so from the perspective of the craftspeople how did they design these patterns how did they practically do it you know because when you look at these patterns you think they look very complex they look very difficult but these cross people were nevertheless we're not mathematicians you know then you had to make things with their hands then you had to draw with a compass and a ruler and with these two tools they may know these patterns so my approach is there are a lot of people who already write about the philosophical aspects I'll leave that to those people I like to write about the practical and the historical aspects and when you put it all together then you have a good good offering from various parts of the world so what's the most intricate pattern or architectural place for you what has he most fascinated well a bit of both I mean you have certain patterns that you see in different parts of the world so this for example particular kind of pattern that you can see in seljuq Anatolia but you can also see it in the Alhambra you can also see it in this form you can also see it in Cairo for example or North Africa so there are some patterns I think that craftsmen who whose job it was to make these patterns if they were playing around with a compass and a ruler they discovered these patterns independently so there would for some patterns there wouldn't be any transfer of knowledge it would just be something that was there to be discovered by people who did this as their trade that that's one part of it did the miracle or the extraordinary thing really is that you find these patterns across a thousand years of Islamic history and across the whole of the Islamic world and some patterns are similar some patterns are different but they all use the same rules you know there are these rules of how these patterns should be made how this composition should be made this is all applied equally in the same way with the same rigor by craftsmen going back from the Umayyad era up to the late ottoman era and that's that's the extraordinary thing about it and it's not just about the patterns either of course I mean anytime we look at a pattern we can choose just to look at the pattern as black lines on white on the white piece of paper for example but in reality of course these are pieces of art it's art or architecture so it's always embellished it's always made more beautiful in one way or another whether it's in ceramics or it's a quran page those things make a distinctive pear region as well right well I guess the most important question is how is this design tradition relevant and appealing in the 21st century what's being done to preserve or maybe Rhian the game reinvigorated well well what I find very interesting is where you have patterns that you that give you clues you know that gives you clues that you can't find in historical documentation you know I think we can learn a lot by looking very well at these patterns and looking at these patterns in put in context so for example there's a particular pattern that appears in in a rectangular composition in the sultan hassan mosque in cairo that same pattern that appears in the muslim surya madrasah in baghdad and then also appears in the mosque in in Konya and the reason this is so extraordinary is that this pattern is very idiosyncratic it's a pattern that you can imagine that a craftsman would have made but it's not something that you can imagine that different craftsman hundreds of years apart would have arrived that independently so patterns like that give me interesting clues to how you could follow some transfer of knowledge if you see what I mean so those those things I find very interesting because that's very under researched you know because the it hangs together but it's for us to discover Eric Krogh thank you very much examples of the classic art of Islamic patterns have gone beyond familiar borders with workshops on the arch popping up in some unexpected places a workshop in London is offering students of diverse backgrounds that opportunity to share in this age-old tradition and in the process a little cultural exchange takes place this is the kind of artwork you usually find in the East End of London but behind these gates they're making something rather different these students are learning traditional methods to create classic Islamic designs on paper clay plaster and glass so basically making Michael Schell gold their teacher Adam Williamson is an Englishman but he's been fascinated with the calligraphy of the Quran and the patterns of the East since he was a teenager well for me it's the connection with nature so the geometry had a I was drawn to it and the symmetry and the repetition but as soon as you start investigating more and finding out for certain numbers relate to nature like Fibonacci sequence now these patterns where it might relate to the movements of the planets and show the unity of the University creation like they have a much larger deeper meaning turkey is famous for its tiles so that feels like the best place for me to begin I've never done this before so be gentle what do we have to do okay it's pretty simple you have the past Harbor the pot pattern cotton to fit the frame this would you play need to knead the clay like kneading dough okay that I have done okay and then you're gonna roll it out flat on the table right have you got to work quite quickly with this so it doesn't dry yeah and the other yeah that's it and then pressure with your thumbs it's good you can get your frustrations out on this can't you yeah the excess edges oh there's something quite nice about going back to childhood in this it kind of reminds me of you know playing with clay dough and plasticine when I was little and these students feel the benefits too I like the practical side of geometry the feel of the clay and constructing it into shapes all I can finance the camera see this is a very refined artwork it releases me from the numbers and makes me more creative my day job is I'm a mom so I've got three children getting lots my dears things to do with the kids know dad and what kids I mean I've been doing geometry of my children they've loved there and it takes them away from the TV and from anything else and you'd be surprised you know how how much they enjoy doing things like this these budding artists can go on field trips to Turkey Egypt Iran and Morocco it's an opportunity to see the scale of original artworks in their natural environment back home it inspires their own work and gives them greater understanding of the culture behind the art so one of the happy byproducts of this course is the integration of Muslims and non-muslims through art and they can experience something that's beautiful another culture and religion in this little corner of London one thousand year old artistic techniques facilitate a very modern cultural exchange vanessa cutter fir'd trt world london we explored Islamic geometric patterns and its effects on this edition of showcase from TRT world Istanbul I'mI'm sure ten thank you for watching and see you next time

Channel: TRT World

Views: 85,915

Keywords: Art, Islam, Islamic Art, Geomtry, Architecture, Sinan, Showcase, TRT WORLD, The possibility of infinite expansion, Islamic geometric patterns, geometric designs, Showcase Specials

Id: 8wqhb-6Xwrs

Length: 24min 31sec (1471 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 11 2016