Asif Khan

Born 1979 in London, UK, where he lives and works

Architect and multi-disciplinary artist, Asif Khan works fluidly between buildings, landscapes, installations, and objects. His interests are in profound sensory experience, cultural exchange and the merging of history with the future. He considers each project as “bridges leading to a new world, and a new self.” He has exhibited widely from the UK to Japan and Korea. Current projects include the Museum of the Incense Road, Al-Ula; and the Barbican Art Centre Renewal. Awarded an MBE for “Services to Architecture” (2017), he received the Grand Prix for Innovation from Cannes Lions (2014), and the FX award for outstanding contribution to Architecture (2024). Khan’s works investigate universal ideas of beauty, and explore new aesthetic languages through what he calls the “reconnection of art and science.”

Glass Qur’an / Mushaf al-Zujaj

This work reflects on the Holy Qur’an as a relationship with light. Drawing upon the chapter in Al-Nur—“Light upon Light” (24:35)—the work manifests the sacred text of the Qur’an as a structure that transcends ink and paper, existing instead in light and space. The glass pages capture and reflect light between themselves: the viewer and the universe. My wish is that through its transparent composition, each word in the Qur’an will simultaneously and continuously receive light. Through this, the work functions as both a repository and a transmitter, embodying the idea of the text as a medium of illumination—physically and metaphorically it is the light within the lamp of creation.

Composed of 604 glass folios, each one is hand-gilded with 24-carat gold in the calligraphy of ‘Uthman Taha. My intent is to render the Qur’an in a material form beyond the human scale of time. This is a sensation I had a glimpse of when I first saw the Blue Qur’an. Glass and gold are materials sourced from deep within the earth, yet possess cosmic qualities. Through the action of light, I am interested in how they bridge the tangible and the transcendent. The glass, delicate and thin, symbolizes the fragility of revelation and the responsibility entrusted to humankind in preserving it. Light  serves as a medium for knowledge, unfolding eternally across time and space. In this work, art, science, and spiritual enquiry converge, and, I hope, offer a way to access the Qur’an’s essence that transcends cultural and linguistic boundaries. The Glass Qur’an invites all who encounter it to see beyond form and materiality, feeling in their hearts a sense of timelessness and connection with the divine, in a form that resonates universally with humanity’s search for understanding.

– Asif Khan