Artist's Statement: American Qur'an

Abstract

AS A LIFE-LONG SURFER, Sandow Birk has traveled extensively around the world searching for waves. Over the past two decades, those travels had taken him on extended trips to various regions of the Islamic world, visiting several of the most populous Muslim nations and seeing important collections of Islamic artworks. It was these travels, along with political events across the world, which inspired his initial interest in Islam and the Qur'an. Since beginning the project, he has continued his travels to a variety of places, from the largest mosque in Africa to the remote Islamic outposts of Mindanao in the Philippines and the Andaman Islands of India. He has done research throughout Morocco; at the Institut du Monde Arab in Paris while on a three-month residency at the Cité International des Artes; and at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, home to one of the largest and finest collections of hand-illuminated Qur'ans in the world. Further research was done at the Smithsonian's Freer and Sackler Galleries, and the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon.