The Art of Eternal Connections

The Art of Eternal Connections is a follow-up project to Eternal Connections, which took place in 2022 in partnership with Historic Environment Scotland (HES), me (Alice Martin, a visual artist), the Muslim Scouts of Edinburgh and AMINA – The Muslim Women’s Resource Centre, which encouraged conversations around Scotland’s Muslim communities.

This new project builds upon the original but takes it in new directions focusing more specifically on creative practice elements.

I have begun to forge new links with Egyptian glassblowers to make physical reconstructions of the glass beaker with the support of Seif El Rashidi, Director of The Barakat Trust. I then intend to paint an artistic interpretation of the previous digital recreation. These objects will be used as the centrepiece for community art workshops. Results will be showcased in an exhibition at two venues in 2025: Harbour Cottage Gallery, Kirkcudbright, from 28 April until 3 May (exact times to be announced) and the last weekend in July at Caerlaverock Castle.

Arabic

The reference for this project is the same as the original one, three fragments of medieval Islamic glass in the care of HES. The shards would have been produced in Syria or Egypt and date to the 12th and 13th centuries. Syria and Egypt were important glassmaking centres. The artefacts were uncovered in the late 1990s at Caerlaverock Castle in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, and would have come from a beaker containing an inscription band. Two of the three fragments can be combined to read part of the word ‘eternal’. Initial thoughts were that this word may have been an extract from the Qur’an however after further research and ongoing dialogues with experts in Islamic art, this is unlikely for a drinking vessel that would have been handled frequently. It was also not unheard of for such items to contain wine during the Mamluk period. Therefore similar to other examples, the calligraphy would form a full sentence, namely a generic blessing conveying good health.

Additionally, from what I’ve learned it seems that when ‘Glory’ is used without ‘Eternal and Prosperity’ the inscription is longer and directed towards a specific person, such as the Sultans. Lastly, The third fragment could be from the same beaker or perhaps it belonged to a set, ranging in size, as there are known examples of these.

Glassblowing

The glass beakers for this project are made in a glass-making factory called Khaled Abou Ahmed. The sons of Khaled crafted these particular vessels: Mohamed and Ahmed. The footage shows the glassblower technique of using my 3D-printed prototype for shape and size. The factory is in Cairo, Egypt, next to the Mamluk Mosque of Qaytbay in the City of the Dead. Seif El Rashidi assisted with this part.

Video credit: Leila Said