After which, I am no more I, and you are no more you was a site-specific commission by artist Imran Qureshi for part of the nave of Truro Cathedral, in collaboration with Newlyn Art Gallery & The Exchange, supported by Outset UK, in 2016.
The vast work occupied much of the south aisle, spilling over rows of pews in the nave of the Cathedral. The work was constructed from 30,000 A1 crumpled, printed sheets carrying images devised by Qureshi and was installed by a team of ten, working over four days under his guidance and in full public gaze.
The artwork at Truro was different from his previous installations, especially in the use of the green colour palette. The artwork comprised 30,000 sheets of paper, each printed with photographs of a vast floor painting Qureshi created in front of the Aga Khan Museum of Islamic Art in Toronto, depicting green foliage in the form of motifs from Mughal miniature painting. In this work, Qureshi brought the garden into the cathedral space in another form – transforming one work into another.
In this work and context, imagery relating to the garden was very important. In many religious books, including the Bible and Quran, the idea of ‘garden’ is used repeatedly, for example, the Garden of Eden is referred to in both. Here Qureshi drew attention to the common links across faiths and cultures and particularly, in this work, between Islamic religious and cultural traditions and those associated with the Christian faith.
Qureshi explained that when he visited the cathedral site for the first time, he felt a strong sense of peace and silence which he said: "suddenly cuts you off from the rest of the world and makes you feel and think about your inner-self and a connection with God. I think that feeling inspired me to create this work; not with the violent imagery of direct depiction of red bloodied crumpled paper (which I have used in my previous work of the same nature) but with green foliage images."
