Exhibit: A World Through Windows

• Event Date: Tuesday, February 23, 2021
• Location: Spurlock Museum, 600 S. Gregory St., Urbana, IL
• Cost: Free

• Exhibit
• Exhibit-Related tag

In his new work, A World Through Windows, Syrian-Armenian artist Kevork Mourad explores how the “pandemic has reduced our sense of space and our spheres of influence,” even while it has “increased our connectivity around the world” (Mourad). Using a technique that employs monotype on fabric, ink drawing, and sculpture, Mourad has created a network of windows, through which a viewer can peer. Each window is separate from the other, each “sealed entity,” gestures toward our current state of isolation, and yet when viewers step back and look at the whole of the building image, they see that the spaces are connected. The effect is that of an ancient ruin, with architectural details reminiscent of Islamic patterning, with a mix of Italian baroque complexity. And while the emptiness that the windows hold and the time-worn structures suggest war damage and loss, the building’s network still holds, as it seems to be waiting for its inhabitants to return. Thus, as Mourad points out, the piece suggests “angst, fear, boredom, loneliness, anger,” but also “community,” wherein we share in both our “happiness and our suffering.”

A World Through Windows is now in the permanent collection at the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures.