The night sky has long borne curiosity. Across centuries and cultures, humans have looked to the stars in search of belonging in familiar constellations, and the divine in the vastness of the cosmos. Yet our boundless pursuit of the stars brings with it the possibility of migrating into space; and with that, the risk of repeating colonial histories of exclusion.
Edge of the C is a solo exhibition of works by Shireen Taweel that traces a poetic and critical trajectory between culture and the cosmos. Beginning and ending beneath a crescent moon – a symbol of hope, transition and renewal – Edge of the C draws upon histories of Islamic science, ritual and architecture, asking whether diverse spiritual practices and identities will be considered in our designs for life beyond Earth.
This exhibition conceptually references the astrolabe, sextant, and quadrant: three astronomical devices used to measure distance and locate the self in time and space. Across sculpture, printmaking and drawing, Taweel has adopted heritage designs and techniques of piercing and engraving copper; a means to returning ancestral knowledge and a long-standing relationship between science and spirituality to contemporary discourse on space travel.
Her hand-built sculptures assume the role of speculative navigation devices. Their surface detailing recalls the intricate ornamentation of historic astronomical tools— designs that hold decorative, functional, and spiritual virtues. Carrying the ancestral into the speculative future, Taweel’s sculptures serve as wayfinders of a sort— instruments to orient pilgrims adrift in the ether, and to guide a re-emergence of Arab histories long omitted from dominant narratives of astronomy.
Diasporic themes of journey, displacement, and complex negotiations of belonging are evoked in Edge of the C, as Taweel imagines possibilities for community gathering, ritual, and ceremony off-Earth. What lies here is a blueprint for a more inclusive future among the stars; a guided voyage to a new frontier – one for the collective, rather than the few – and a reminder of the belief systems that have for so long shaped how we read and study the night sky: “He has given to you the stars so that you may guide yourself in the darkness of land and sea.” (Surah Al-An’am, Ayah 97)
Shireen Taweel
Shireen Taweel is a Sydney-based multidisciplinary artist working on Gadigal land whose practice rests within a diasporic landscape that she inhabits as a Lebanese Australian. Drawing on Islamic architecture, science and ritual, Taweel brings to light histories and cultural practices that have been buried beneath the weight of social-political power structures: the contributions of Arabic Science’s astronomical and celestial navigation instruments to the past and future of migration and pilgrimage. Through contemporary and conceptual applications of heritage coppersmith artisan techniques, Taweel imagines futures off-Earth that are built on shared histories and fluid community identities.
