Dewsbury artist Saba Rifat is a graduate of The Prince’s School of Traditional Arts in London and creates works that are inspired by nature and her Islamic heritage.
For the past 12 months she has been involved in a unique community project to create an art installation that will be unveiled in Dewsbury Minster on Saturday, May 14.
Saba, 42, has run a series of workshops at St John’s Church, near her home in Dewsbury Moor, at which participants have taken inspiration from the patterns and colours of the building’s stained glass windows to make geometric paper bricks. It is these bricks that Saba will use to form the final installation.
She says the first Geometric Friends workshops brought in mostly members of the church but as the project developed it attracted people from all sections of the community. “The last one was rammed to the rafters and we didn’t have enough space,” she said, “It brought in a multi-faith, diverse community of people from different backgrounds; people who might not normally sit together and talk together. It was wonderful, and so relaxing for the people taking part. We are now discussing ways of keeping the project going. We want it to leave a lasting legacy. Dewsbury has a lot of negative press but something positive is happening and we’d like to use it as a springboard for activities.”
Saba, who is a part-time hospital pharmacist, says she was approached to run the workshops, which were part of the Near Neighbours project to build community relationships in areas that are religiously and ethnically diverse. Funded by a Church Urban Fund grant, she has been working alongside the Rev Kathy Robertson from St John’s Church.
Both women have been delighted at the response from the public. Saba explained: “We had men and women who were apprehensive to start with but they got so much out of it. They have asked for more. The project broke down barriers and they found the creativity so therapeutic.”
Modern Islamic art is based on geometric forms and patterns. Saba believes there is a strong link between Islamic art and the Byzantine era Christian art.
She said: “Both are rooted in the foundation of geometry, which is part of nature and is universal. This is the basis for the project. Geometric patterns are pleasing and mesmerising and there is a multiplicity of ways to create them.
“People can contribute in so many different ways – the same pattern even, but expressed in different ways through different colours – to create something unique.”
Her own studies of art led her to apply for a masters degree in Visual Islamic and Tradition Art at the school of arts founded by Prince Charles. She completed the qualification back in 2001 and since then has exhibited both at home and internationally. She is the creator of a colouring book, Geometric Skies, which was published last year.
The Prince’s school, which developed from the visual Islamic and traditional arts programme at the Royal College of Art, focuses on the sacred and traditional arts of the world’s great civilisations
Saba says the idea of creating geometric bricks came from a desire to ‘build’ something positive. But the final installation will not be a solid wall or obstacle.
It can be viewed from noon until 5pm on May 14.
