{"id":3593,"date":"2019-12-08T11:41:09","date_gmt":"2019-12-08T16:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/?p=3593"},"modified":"2019-12-08T12:38:18","modified_gmt":"2019-12-08T17:38:18","slug":"redoing-the-imam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/?p=3593","title":{"rendered":"Redoing the Imam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>As I begin to lay out the next Blurb book, I&#8217;m retracing the steps of my burgeoning engagement with persons and creatures in rock. It seems that it was more than five years ago (in March 2014) that I discovered <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Hujjat-Allah_al-Mahdi\">the 12th Imam<\/a> (who went into <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Occultation_(Islam)\">Occultation<\/a> in 874 CE) on a stretch of beach rock:<br \/>\n<center><a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/49188883477\/in\/dateposted-family\/\" title=\"12th Imam as first discovered\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49188883477_b4520bceaf_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"480\" alt=\"12th Imam as first discovered\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/center>I made a mirrored image of himself and his chiral twin, heads resting in the lap of a goddess (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/news\/2019-06-20\/american-gods-mythology-guide-who-is-bilquis-queen-of-sheba-and-goddess-of-love\/\">Bilquis<\/a>, I&#8217;m thinking):<br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n <a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/28220855903\/in\/photolist-KTky8W-JZMgg6-h9nJod\" title=\"expired and melting turbaned dude, on the lap of a Goddess\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/8806\/28220855903_08b3e86027_z.jpg\" width=\"640\" height=\"246\" alt=\"expired and melting turbaned dude, on the lap of a Goddess\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/center><br \/>\nI relocated the original image and rotated it a bit, then traced the lines of extravagant turban, beard, and eye-nose-mouth:<br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/49183876972\/in\/dateposted-family\/\" title=\"12th Imam 8iii14\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49183876972_4357fc19d2_z.jpg\" width=\"526\" height=\"640\" alt=\"12th Imam 8iii14\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/49188085661\/in\/dateposted-family\/\" title=\"Imam1\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49188085661_21c2ab7d49_z.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"640\" alt=\"Imam1\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/49187587318\/in\/dateposted-family\/\" title=\"Imam2\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49187587318_216da33b94_z.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"640\" alt=\"Imam2\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/center><br \/>\nThe great significance for me of this image is its contribution to my appreciation of ephemerality in the medium of rock. Months after the original capture of the Imam (in December 2014), I returned to the stretch of beach in search of the Imam. I found the rock, sure enough, but the Imam was simply not there:<br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<a data-flickr-embed=\"true\" href=\"https:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/blackmerh\/49187719953\/in\/dateposted-family\/\" title=\"1xii14 no Imam\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/live.staticflickr.com\/65535\/49187719953_2eb3aa40b5_z.jpg\" width=\"444\" height=\"640\" alt=\"1xii14 no Imam\"><\/a><script async src=\"\/\/embedr.flickr.com\/assets\/client-code.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><br \/>\n<\/center><br \/>\nSubsequently (as I compared the March and December images) I realized that the Imam&#8217;s mouth in the March image was in fact a strand of seaweed, whisked away by the next tide. I <i>can<\/i> imagine a turban&#8217;d face in the December image, but it&#8217;s not nearly as classy as the Imam. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As I begin to lay out the next Blurb book, I&#8217;m retracing the steps of my burgeoning engagement with persons and creatures in rock. It seems that it was more than five years ago (in March 2014) that I discovered the 12th Imam (who went into Occultation in 874 CE) on a stretch of beach [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,54],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-photography","category-tessellations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3593"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3593\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3597,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3593\/revisions\/3597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oook.info\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}