The Memory of Water

Paintings & Installation, 2014 – 2018,
book series – water paintings, water painting canvas,
water paintings on canvas blue, Oil on canvas with neon light

As is always the case in Ahmad Rafi’s multi-layered and complex artistic posi­tion, it didn‘t remain a purely natural reflection. He engaged with a traditional philosophical concept that interprets flowing water as the embodiment of hu­man existence and as a symbol of time passing. The pre-Socratic philosopher Heraklit (ca, 550 – 480 BC) compared everything ‘being’ to the flowing river and said: „One cannot step into the same river twice.“

For Heraklit flowing water was also emblematic of the transitoriness of everything earthly. “Panta rhei” – everything flows, nothing stays the same. In the middle of this analysis Ahmad Rafi decided to take a trip to Lampedusa, the largest of the Pelagie Islands, situated between Tunisia and Sicily, in the Mediterranean Sea.