Emile Ferris

Saving My Monster
ink on digital print
8 x 11 in.

It is my contention that we are plagued by the cruelty we have visited on Iraq. Our bombs shook loose the entities which those lands harbored and our aggression has made the membrane which divided our countries thoroughly porous.

I have reinterpreted photographs of American streets, intuiting and drawing beings, who, in Muslim tradition are called “jinn.” According to Wikipedia, “Muslims believe that jinn are real beings…[who have] free will and are formed of smokeless fire by God (the literal translation being ‘subtle fire,’ i.e., a fire which does not give itself away through smoke), much in the same way humans were made of a metaphorical clay. In the Qur’an, jinn are frequently mentioned…. In fact, the prophet Muhammad was said to have been sent as a prophet to both ‘humanity and the jinn’.“ Wikipedia continues, “The jinn have communities much like human societies: they eat, marry, die, etc. They are invisible to humans, but they can see humans. Sometimes they accidentally or deliberately come into view or into contact with humans.”

© Emile Ferris