Khoja Art
Shelina Liyakat Khimji (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania) is a self-taught, award-winning Tanzanian artist and a qualified accountant. Drawn to art since her childhood, Shelina has a rich African and Arabian background, having grown up in Tanzania and inherited a Zanzibari upbringing from her parents. Her work has been featured on CNN Style and various other platforms. Shelina’s art often captures the essence of Tanzanian landscapes and wildlife, evoking personal memories and emotions through her unique style.
She is a qualified accountant with credentials such as FCCA and CPA-PP. She served as a Senior Audit Manager at Crowe Tanzania before transitioning full-time to her passion for art.
Khoja Art
The role of traditional art forms in maintaining cultural identity while adapting to contemporary societal changes
Art is a form of visual storytelling, and it has a huge role to play in society, having a remarkable place thereon. It can convey intricate and complex cultural narratives. Therefore, culture is not lost through art because it preserves heritage and cultural identity.
While art influences a community, it also develops a sense of belonging as it highlights its values, traditions, challenges, and experiences. This allows future generations to preserve their history and yet bring about change to adapt to contemporary societal changes.
Meanwhile, besides having a significant place in any society, art has been used throughout the years to ignite social activism advocating change, trigger dialogue, challenge status quo, and express and convey messages.
While it can influence a society as we have witnessed how the popular Banksy artworks have done so, on the other side of the coin, the same society gains the ability to affect artistic expressions due to their beliefs, traditions, experiences and identities.
In the abstract of the research paper, “The role of Islamic art in maintaining the identity of the Arabs and its relationship with modern arts,” M.D. Hala Saber Abdel Maqsoud Mahdi, Lecturer at the Higher Institute of Applied Arts, Cairo Academy of Sciences and Arts, Fifth Settlement. Department / Applied Ornamentation as quoted:
Islamic art has a major role in enriching society and creating a special character for it, as Islamic civilization has a major role in enriching and shaping its thinking and reality. Art in general is the imagination of nations, as it expresses the stock of civilizations, their goals and their culture. This is evident in the artistic dialogue generated by the various arts stemming from preserving the identity and privacy highlighted by the various artistic tools within each civilization. Islamic art is an applied art that participates in all aspects of life, decorating architecture, utensils and furniture.
The paper investigated the extent of the influence of Islamic art on global arts. It also highlights the role of Islamic art in serving life and society and how to blend it with modern arts.
The Islamic world has had a huge impact on art due to its rich tapestry of history and culture, and the same goes for Khoja Heritage. This is because the Khoja community goes a step further when it comes to history and how the community was formed through different eras, life’s different challenges, and sects, while voyaging different countries conveyed through art, showing its civilization and identity.
This has had an impact on Contemporary Arts because as the community grew, it also refined itself and adopted the Islamic culture that today influences the global art scene. One of the fundamental elements Islam focuses on is humanity due to the sacrifice of Imam Hussein (as.) and his companions. At the same time, the holy Quran places equal importance on how to live in peace and harmony with others while reforming ourselves and our lives, safeguarding ourselves from an unrestrained lifestyle.
This beauty that Allah has placed in us and in nature, revives and builds the human spirit. The Khoja Heritage evolved through the years to include these elements, and the art thus speaks for itself as it depicts the humaneness of what they believe in and how it forges its relationship with man and society, showing its core belief and identity.
Hence, whether it is traditional art from centuries ago or modern contemporary Islamic art, Khoja heritage has always embedded the principles of Islamic art because of the values based on the same Islamic beliefs. It has never been radical, provocative, or defamatory. Due to this fact, it has always been referred to as “Contemporary Islamic art “and not just “Contemporary Art.”
Whilst it has also always captured the world’s attention as seen through popular architecture, pots, furniture, carpets, etc., it is a form of applied art that plays a role in all aspects of life, and its aim is to depict the significance and essence of everything rather than just their physical form.
It implies art is known as a form of expression, Khoja Heritage have used it to their advantage to enrich and shape the society’s thinking and reality. This is evident in the architecture of our mosques and structures, for instance, which have become attractive to modern art expressionists due to the spiritual values present within the architecture through which the Khoja community artists have expressed the hidden expression of humanity, equality, respect, faith, love, and Allah’s beauty. This is also portrayed in all different forms of art décor in our everyday lives or within the same mosques.
Due to the unique expression of Contemporary Islamic art, famous artists such as Leonardo da Vinci studied Islamic decorations, while another artist, Francisco Pellegrino, also spent long hours studying Islamic arts. This is because despite going through various developments in styles and themes, the quality and identity were maintained, and that is what has made Islamic art noticeable and distinct as a unified type of art. Laura Marks, an inter-faith social activist, writer and media commentator, also suggested that Islamic art influenced modern Western art when she stated that:
“Undoubtedly the many techniques of abstraction, algorithmic construction, tactile surface qualities, meditative repetition and other qualities found in various Islamic arts influenced the rise of Western modernism”
The interlocking geometrically shaped motifs, floral and botanical elements, and Arabic calligraphy, in addition to other qualities of balance and symmetry, is what fundamentally is the symbolic language through which the Khoja community has depicted Islamic art. Each of these elements has a distinct meaning; for instance, geometry and repeating patterns depict the language of the universe inviting the believer to reflect on the greatness of creation, whereas repetition depicts that in the small we can find the infinite as it forms a huge endless pattern generating unity between God and his creations.
This goes back to a long history of artists who put in efforts, ardour, and authenticity to express Islamic values through art by believing Islamic art needs to be taken seriously to express the their souls and beliefs of their understanding of the World and religion as Islam is integral to every part of a Muslim’s life.
The integration of arts and crafts therefore became part of everyday life as a norm as evidenced in various writings, architectural details, from facades, ceilings and doors to utensils, pottery, carpets, and in the current era to many more objects such as bookmarks, prayers mats, silverware, contemporary paintings, jewellery and much more.
We have witnessed the same development in the Khojas community, who believe that whilst preserving their identity, culture and history through art, Islam forms the crux of their everyday life as it is an integral and beautiful part of a Muslim’s life. Therefore, it should be used to make the things of everyday life beautiful, spiritual, and reflective with a focus on Allah and His beautiful creation while influencing the modern contemporary society by having a very significant place in the “Contemporary Art world.”
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