SHIVA | SUfI | SATAN

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Shiva | Sufi | Satan is a triptych made only from mud as paint ditching all kind of synthetic materials - explores the complex relationship between religion, spirituality, and human nature. Rather than examining faith through the lens of any single doctrine, the work approaches religion as a deeply human experience—one that oscillates between structure, longing, and shadow.

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The project emerges from a contemporary moment in which religious identities increasingly shape political discourse, social belonging, and global conflict. As societies become more interconnected, religion continues to function as a powerful source of meaning, community, and moral orientation. At the same time, it is often mobilized as a tool of division, creating boundaries between “us” and “them.” This tension forms the conceptual foundation of the work.

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The triptych is built around three archetypal dimensions that coexist within every individual:

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Shiva represents order, action, responsibility, creation, and destruction—the realm of duty, ritual, and the structures that sustain life.

Sufi embodies the inward journey: contemplation, devotion, longing, compassion, and the search for meaning beyond the visible world.

Satan is not approached as a figure of absolute evil, but as the shadow that emerges when human flaws distort belief. It represents dogma turned into judgment, faith transformed into intolerance, and spirituality corrupted by ego, power, or fear.

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These figures are not separate entities but psychological states that continuously interact within the human condition. We move between them throughout our lives—building and striving, seeking and surrendering, stumbling and confronting our own limitations.

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At its core, Shiva | Sufi | Satan is not a work about religion itself, but about the human psyche. It asks how individuals navigate duty, transcendence, and moral ambiguity in a world increasingly shaped by ideological certainty and political polarization. The work invites viewers to reflect on the contradictions they carry within themselves and to recognize that faith, doubt, devotion, and shadow are inseparable aspects of being human.

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The project is also an exploration of materiality. The work is created using earth and mud in place of synthetic paints, reconnecting image-making to one of humanity's oldest artistic materials. Mud carries the energy and aura of the place (read about my 'blah-blah' on mud)

By working with earth, the project seeks to ground contemporary debates around identity and belief in a material that precedes all religions, borders, and ideologies—a reminder that despite our differences, we ultimately emerge from and return to the same ground.