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Islamic Art
A Year in Review: the Islamic Museum of Australia
2022 saw a series of engaging exhibitions and educational developments at Australia’s first Islamic Museum
Situated in north Melbourne and currently the only Islamic museum in Australia, the Islamic Museum of Australia was founded in 2010 with the aim to provide educational and cross-cultural experiences for visitors, as well as to showcase the artistic and cultural heritage of Muslims in Australia and in Islamic societies abroad. As part of their aim to foster community harmony, facilitate understanding, and champion Muslim voices, the Islamic Museum of Australia continued to deliver a strong programme of contemporary Islamic art exhibitions from a variety of mediums, as well as taking significant steps in the educational sphere.
In the first major exhibition of the year, the museum presented Hayakal al Noor (Bodies of Light), by the internationally acclaimed multimedia artist Narjis Mirza. In this enveloping sensorial, immersive and transcendent installation, Mirza took inspiration from the medieval Islamic philosophy of illumination. Visitors were guided to ponder beyond the visible and the tangible, through the multisensorial exhibition gallery which was transformed using animated calligraphy, projection, textiles…
