Faculty of Art

Sculpture/Installation

Nabeela Malik

Inner Peace

My installation consists of a geometric design that is laser cut into black acrylic. In front of this piece there are two pieces of drywall with large holes bashed out of them, with one hanging in front of the other. There is no light in the room except for the faint, flickering candle light that shines through the geometric design. Within the geometric design there is the Arabic word ‘Salaam’ which means peace in each of the six corners of the hexagon. I created this design when I was struggling against a lot of opposing forces to a point where I felt as if I had lost touch with who I am and why I am here. As I sank into this dark place, a fire grew inside me, wanting to fight against all these oppositions to find my inner peace. I realized that there will always be opposing forces that are out of our control. What is in our control is how we react to them. I decided to strengthen my spirituality to a point where I would never allow myself to sink into such a dark place again. My choice of breaking through drywall was to depict the intensity and force that it took for me to reach the level of inner peace that I now have. The light is flickering rather than beaming through because I am still coming out of this place and there are still times where I am dealing with the aftermath and question myself.