Dear Readers,
“Whale Weather” by Ebineyland
The theme for the issue has been a long time coming. Writing this and knowing what’s to follow, I realize how fitting it is that I should address the world at this particular junction. Full disclosure: I have never actually poked and prodded the concept—and myself in relation to it—to gauge how I feel (about it).
Conversations come to mind, opinions unvoiced, gestures restrained and times of exuberance in moderation. I cannot compartmentalize freedom to break it down for myself unlike many other states of being. There is a voice that reiterates, with increasing fervor, that the concept of freedom is meant to be an absolute: one cannot be moderately free. One cannot feel moderately free.
The blacks and whites that come with the territory brought to my mind the rather gray work of Sara Sultan, featured in this issue. Using only ink on paper, her pieces, done always in black and white, bring forth the struggle with the gray in our lives. Her subjects, sometimes lost, at others emerging from what surrounds them, symbolize our relationship with all that is around us; essentially making us who we are.
I began this letter thinking I was about to understand how I felt about this issue’s theme. I now realize I have meandered through a few disjointed paragraphs coming full circle to the same place. But what I do know is this: freedom, for me, is not a feeling – it is simply an absence of the feelings that are in opposition to it.
With a lot of love,
Moeed Tariq
Creative Director
