"It’s the day when the sun has no function, it disappears, the light which is there with the judgement of deeds is the light of the Creator, he who created the earth and the heaven. It’s a very very difficult thing to explain, but this is what we have learned as children, as grownups, about people who have faith in Islam, that the Day of Judgement is most important.
I portrayed it in a way which is simplifying things. A very simple mud house which is empty, no occupants, no people to be there to carry on, because the work of deeds has finished by the last day, and there’s no more being accounted for what you do. Good deeds or bad deeds are all recorded, and they’ll be brought forward for weighing and judgement.
This is roughly why the colour is very simple, because there’s no more adding colour or taking it away, it’s up to the Creator to judge, and to pardon with his mercy, pardon people, or – I hate the word, I don’t like the word ‘punishment’, but it’s for the people to have the mercy of Allah blessed on them, and they go for the next life, which is everlasting. To me what is happening now, and the change of climate, these are all signs for the believer to perfect his deeds with the mercy of the Creator.
Anyway, this is just simply a work of art, in a way it’s a prayer for God’s forgiveness for the bad deeds you do and help us in the last day to be recorded as forgiven.
I did it as a group of works when I was working in that method, to simplify things, and I pray all the time, it’s not just once, asking for forgiveness.
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I kept it because it looked so much like the Sudan. I mean the atmosphere, as if for me the last day will be in the Sudan, and then the Creator who created my soul and body, then he will weigh all my deeds, good and bad, hoping I will be forgiven, to be weighed on the right side. Many of my works are prayers.
It’s a simple work, I meant to give it to the Sudan for when they had a suitable museum, but looking at things the way they are now, it’s very difficult to give anything there or to keep it safe. You never know what happens. But I meant to give it to Sudan." – Ibrahim El-Salahi, speaking to his wife Katherine about No Shade but His Shade