To the Realm of Growth

May 22 – Jun 26, 2026

“All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.”
— William Shakespeare

Shakespeare had always seemed to me a mythic figure, akin to Ishtar, a goddess whose presence brought life itself to a standstill and whose passion and creation, love and war, were bound to violence and struggle. Yet the first time I encountered these words, standing before Rodin in a museum in Philadelphia, Shakespeare’s earthly dimension revealed itself to me. A dimension interwoven with the soil and stone of Auguste Rodin’s sculptures, settling upon my imagination like a garment that would come to clothe the very framework of my works years later.

Over the years, these works have performed upon the stage of art, their evolution resembling a passage from one world to another, or, in Shakespeare’s terms, these seven stages of life. Much like Ishtar’s descent into the underworld, passing through seven gates in the realm of darkness and relinquishing outward identity, she arrives at transformation and rebirth before returning once more to life.

So too does the present exhibition, in its “First Chapter,” traverse seven stages: from the Valley of Quest to the Construction of Brick; from the Valley of Love, where Lily is embodied, toward the Valley of Knowledge embodied in Five Celestial Bodies. In the Valley of Detachment, through the practice of Writings, a liberation from the multiplicity of forms arrives at the Valley of Unity, and an understanding of the “formlessness within form.” The Valley of Wonder invites the Columns of Stitching; through the Symphony of Threads, silence heralds the beginning of a new chapter in life with Homage to Ishtar.

And finally, in the Valley of Annihilation, it becomes a mirror unto the world, transcending appearances to behold its truth in Water, Wisdom, Light.

How might one define the limits of this path?
Its beginning alone contains a hundred thousand destinations.

— Maryam Abedi