Message in the wind

FRIDAY mornings at the Islamic Art Museum in Kuala Lumpur are usually a little quiet but the morning I was there, it was bustling.

The museum was getting ready for a major exhibition — to be opened in less than a week — and I was there to get a peak of peek at the happenings.

One is greeted by blue and turquoise pillars in floral motifs at the entrance of the museum. This eye-catching facade was inspired by Persian-styled courtyards.

“The colourful pillars were crafted made by master Iranian craftsmen from Iran and they are named called Iwan,” said assistant manager Azura Abdullah who came to show led me to the exhibition hall.

She took me up a spiral stairway to Special Gallery Two, where the “Message and the Monsoon” artifacts were being set up for its Big Day on July 5 today.

The “message” is the word of Allah and “the monsoon” is what brought Islam to Southeast Asia.

According to Exhibition curator Lucien de Guise, said the exhibition is the first of its kind in the region.

Exhibition designer Nisreen Moustafa, an Egyptian-Scottish architect from England, said the exhibition will fill a space of take up 500 square metres.

Acting as supports and dividers are grey panels which signify rain during the monsoon season.

“The display panels were designed to be portable because this will be a travelling exhibition, the next stop will be Florence in Italy, followed by the Festival of Muslim Culture in London and Sheffield in England,” Nisreen said.

“A guest will be greeted with a historic photograph of a noble woman in a traditional costume. The visitor will then weave through past panels to get into the atmosphere of the exhibition,” she said.

Curator De Guise said the noble woman is wearing a Minangkabau ceremonial costume with gold- threads threaded woven into its “ songket.” scarf. She also wears a horn-like shaped head-dress. that had a horn-like shape.

“The costume dates back to the late 19th and early 20th Century. Her songket had an abstract geometry geometrical design with bamboo shoot motifs at the hem of her sarong,” he said.

De Guise is French-British and is trained in Islamic History at Oxford University, England.

Another notable photograph was that of a Jogjakarta ruler dressed in a colonial shirt and a batik. piece. The batik design in brown and white was coined the parang rosak or (broken sword).

After the opening photographs, the visitor will see Qurans decorated with gold, from Terengganu and Patani, and manuscripts. Next, there will be a wall of colourful textiles worn by nobles and rulers of the 14th Century right through to the early 20th Century.

“We are putting the final coat of paint on the grey panels so we kept the textiles and Qurans in the upper storage room. If there they are here, they will absorb the paint fumes and they will be ruined,” Nisreen said.

Nisreen She had designed the gallery’s exhibition models for a month and half 1½ months. Setting up the gallery will take took 10 days.

Nisreen said The textiles will be hung on acrylic tubes lined with acid-free paper against a acid-free panel, behind a perplex cover.

“The acid-free paper will prevent the fabrics from absorbing paint fumes from the panels.” she said.

Next, will be amours and weaponry. They were cleaned and restored by the Conservation Department, they which worked on them for three months.

Nisreen said designing the display took a month but hanging them up took a couple of hours.

The artifacts were gathered from southern Thailand, Indonesia, southern Philippines and Malaysia. The museum owns most of them.

Acting as supports and dividers are grey panels which signify rain during the monsoon. season.

“The display panels were designed to be portable because this will be a travelling exhibition, the next stop will be Florence in Italy, followed by the Festival of Muslim Culture in London and Sheffield in England,” Nisreen said.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Albukhary Foundation, Malaysia Airlines and Islamic Development Department (Jakim).