I was working on this Chalk Labyrinth Saturday evening, along the seawall, north of Science World and west of Creekside Park.
First time making a Labyrinth in this exact location . . .
Wasn’t quite sure the location was ideal, yet people did appreciate it, and it turned out okay.
Still want to go back and finish it though.
It used to be that when I searched online for “Labyrinths” and ““Islam“, almost nothing turned up, except my own blog posts, and my own images.
Recently, I am stumbling upon posts and images like this with increasing frequency…
بسم الله الرحمن الرحیم
وَعَلَى الثَّلَاثَةِ الَّذِينَ خُلِّفُوا حَتَّىٰ إِذَا ضَاقَتْ عَلَيْهِمُ الْأَرْضُ بِمَا رَحُبَتْ وَضَاقَتْ عَلَيْهِمْ أَنْفُسُهُمْ وَظَنُّوا أَنْ لَا مَلْجَأَ مِنَ اللَّهِ إِلَّا إِلَيْهِ ثُمَّ تَابَ عَلَيْهِمْ لِيَتُوبُوا إِنَّ اللَّهَ هُوَ التَّوَّابُ الرَّحِيمُ
#سورة #توبة
آیه ۱۱۸“In the name of God, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful
“And the three who were left behind to the point that the earth closed in on them in spite of its vastness and their souls confined them and they were certain that there is no refuge from Allah except in Him.
“Then He turned to them so they could repent.
“Indeed, Allah is the Accepting of repentance, the Merciful.”
– Qur’an : Chapter/Sūrat At-Tawbah (The Repentance) Verse (9:118)
Never been called an Umbrella man before!
I like this image.
The Squares, the Umbrellas, the fading outline of my Chalk Labyrinth . . .
Hey, that’s me in the background chalking one the dozen Heart Aglets in this Labyrinth!
I have so few photographs of myself making Labyrinths, that I always appreciate when I discover them.
Thank you Alice!
“Trying to leave a Masjid while others are praying”
Okay, I found that funny, as would any Muslim…
Youll never know a real maze until you are trying to leave the mosque while some people are still praying #thestruggle
— Amun Uppal (@amun824) August 3, 2013
Among my signatures in the Labyrinths I design and make, are empty canvas spaces created in-between the turn-arounds.
Often in those canvas spaces, I draw or chalk or paint a smaller Labyrinth design inside.
In my online and real life Labyrinth journeys, I have only ever encountered two or maybe three instances that someone else had made use of this concept.
So, it’s mine. I call dibs. I claim this.
When you see canvas spaces within Labyrinths in Toronto, Vancouver, and elsewhere in the world where I have made and placed semi-permanent Labyrinths, you’ll know it’s one of mine.
It’s among my design signatures.
Labyrinths within Labyrinths within Labyrinths . . .
This image is good close-up of one of them within my Christie Pits Park Wading Pool Labyrinth in Toronto.
This is one of the Heart Aglets from my larger scale Chalk Labyrinth currently on the Seawall near Science World in False Creek.
Aglets are that slip of plastic at the end of shoelaces to prevent fraying of the threads.
When I first began drawing circles at the end of the arcs and turn-arounds in my Labyrinths, I needed a word for what this was and what I intended and hoped for in behaviour of Labyrinth Walkers/Runners.
Over the years I had noticed by direct observation of people walking my Labyrinths, there were these micro-hesitations, these almost imperceptible pauses whenever people reached a turn-around.
Finally realized that people were looking at the far wall at the end of each Labyrinth Lane.
They would reach the wall, and only then would they make a decision to turn.
They were focused on the destination at the end of the lane.
By drawing circles at the end of the arcs, be they parallel or concentric lines, which altogether make a Labyrinth a Labyrinth, I saw those micro-hesitations disappear.
People were focusing on the circle as they walked towards the end of each lane, reaching it they seamlessly turned and continued walking or running until they reached the centre.
This micro-hesitation behaviour did not exist when I looked at people walking traditional Chartres Labyrinth designs.
That was an important clue.
I had observed people just kept walking, without the pause.
That was because at the end of each concentric lane is a semi-circle curve, a Labrys, which would guide you to the next inner or outer parallel concentric lane.
In essence, by drawing circles at the end of arcs, I had pulled in the Labrys from the far wall to the centre of a turn-around point.
That began in Toronto.
One day, I don’t recall when, but it was here in Vancouver, instead of drawing a circle aglet, I drew a heart aglet.
It changed everything.
The entire feeling of walking the Labyrinth changed.
With every turn, one’s own idea of whatever the Heart Symbol means to them, is being compounded with every turn until they reach the centre, where they usually find a Larger Heart, which I almost always now include in my Labyrinths.
I found this positive compounded feeling was lessened by using multi-coloured heart aglets, so I almost always keep them red.
Yet whenever I remember to do so, I mix it up and draw one or maybe two Heart Aglets in a different colour.
Thus, this Blue Heart Aglet…
Good to see how well the Chalk Labyrinth I did the other evening in Bill Curtis Square in Yaletown is holding up.
However, the Heart in the centre of the Labyrinth is almost all gone.
I observed many people would walk right into the centre, stand on the heart, and then take photographs or have photographs taken of them standing on the heart.
Looking forward to re-making a new Chalk Labyrinth here with all I’ve learned by observing how people are interacting with it from this first attempt.
