The Lived Experience of the Audience Facing the Light Installations of Anila Quayyum Agha

Installation art, emerging in the early 20th century, has undergone significant transformations and is now a cornerstone of contemporary art. Through its use of space, materials, and viewer interaction, installation art, as a branch of conceptual art, provides a multi-sensory and immersive experience. Understanding these works requires a careful and multifaceted analysis of the underlying concepts, which are experienced by the viewer through interaction with the art. Anila Quayyum Agha is a renowned artist in the field of installation art, known for her unique creations. Light plays a central role in her works. We aim to explore how viewers experience Agha’s luminous installations. To achieve this, a descriptive-analytical approach was employed, utilizing a qualitative methodology that involved gathering information from libraries and reputable international websites. Furthermore, considering the embodied nature of the viewer's experience within an installation, Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology of perception was used to analyze the data. This research, drawing on Merleau-Ponty’s theory, demonstrates that viewers' experiences of space within Anila Quayyum Agha's works extend beyond mere visual perception. The space in these works is composed of deep layers, both physical, such as the borrowing of traditional motifs and Islamic architecture, and conceptual, such as the blending of various cultures. Agha reimagines these elements in a modern style, creating a balance between past and present. Through this approach, she translates social, cultural, and religious issues into the language of contemporary art and presents them in her interactive installations. Agha's use of art helps us to view the world around us with a fresh perspective. The artist aims to foster a dialogue that transcends cultural and social boundaries, promoting a deeper understanding of human similarities and differences. In Quayyum Agha's interactive installations, the viewer's body becomes a primary tool of perception, engaging directly with the space and facilitating a multi-sensory and profound understanding. The body becomes a means of navigating and interpreting the complex layers of meaning embedded within the artwork. These works present a fusion of modern and traditional aesthetics, utilizing light, shadow, multiple layers, and sound to provoke contemplation on the challenging issues of the East and West. By blurring the lines between tradition and modernity, or the East and West—similar to the body-mind distinction in Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology—these installations invite viewers to question and reflect. Light and sound serve as powerful tools in crafting sensory and emotional experiences. Through her art, she has depicted concepts such as infinity, perfection, and unity in her work ‘Intersections,’ allowing viewers to experience the Islamic spiritual and religious world through their presence and interaction within the piece. Similarly, in ‘This is Not a Shelter,’ she offers viewers a glimpse into the experiences of migrants, contrasting the glamorous world before migration with the challenges of homelessness and insecurity after seeking refuge. In these works, the viewer's body, through a combination of senses, gains a profound understanding of the world. Quayyum Agha demonstrates how our embodied existence plays a crucial role in perceiving complex and conceptual spaces, influencing our interactions with the world.