“The ocean can be yours; why should you stop  

Beguiled by dreams of evanescent dew?

The secrets of the sun are yours, but you

Content yourself with motes trapped in beams.” 

- The Conference of the Birds by Farid ud-Din Attar (translated by Peter Avery)

We are thrilled to announce the opening of our next upcoming exhibition, Secrets of the Sun, at Twelve Gates Arts! We invite you to join us for the opening reception on Friday, August 2nd at 5:30 PM to 8:00 PM with a curatorial walk-through and short reading by Fatimah Asghar at 7:00 PM. Secrets of the Sun will be on view from August 2nd, 2024 to October 26th, 2024 at Twelve Gates Arts, 106 North 2nd St. Philadelphia, PA 19106.

Curated by Sadaf Padder, Secrets of the Sun is inspired by the core lessons of the 12th-century spiritual masterpiece "The Conference of the Birds" by Farid ud-Din Attar -  that the soul’s search for divine enlightenment can come only by relinquishing worldly attachments and overcoming feelings that control us, such as greed, anger, envy and ego. Artists Chitra Ganesh, Bishakh Som, Saba Taj and Maede Tafvizi utilize parables, structure and symbols found in the epic poem to to collectively explore themes of ecological intimacy, self-discovery, community building, self-determination and liberation in stark relief against threats to the vitality of our ecosystems and humanity.