Maham Momin

Play It By Ear, Part 2: Movement

In my study of movement, I’m exploring the processes by which Qawwali challenges your body, both physically and mentally. Qawwali allows people to celebrate the way their bodies interact with the world around them, as individuals are conscious of the space they occupy, the objects they interact with, and the impact of their movements. In a Qawwali performance, the use of hand/arm gestures by the performers is significant in shaping the intensity that’s felt by the audience. This allows a transitioning from the displacement of the reality we live in today, into a space where we’re forced to slow down through the duration of the performance. When listeners are forced to take a moment to pause from the fast-paced world we live in and listen to a Qawwali musician repeat phrases several times, it creates a slowness. This challenges capitalistic systems/routines and encourages indigenous modes of living— through music-making. This book captures slowness through the repetitive ocean waves. This acts as a critique of time, repetition, and movement. The designs lay ontop of an uncomfortably large scale thin paper, making it difficult to hold up and bringing attention to how readers use their bodies to interact with objects and the space around them. It would also confront the discomfort in the slowness that’s displayed by small subtle changes in each frame, that may take several seconds for the reader to notice the difference between the first and last frame—but in real-time that movement of the water may have only taken half a second.