Solo Exhibition
28 September - 30 November 2024

Exhibition Opening: Saturday 28 September 2024
Exhibition Closure: Saturday 30 November 2024 Share Facebook Twitter

WHATIFTHEWORLD is pleased to present Rage Against the Dying of the Light, a solo exhibition by Hanna Noor Mahomed.

“For nothing is fixed, forever and forever, it is not fixed; the earth is always shifting, the light is always changing, the sea does not cease to grind down rock. Generations do not cease to be born, and we are responsible to them because we are the only witnesses they have. The sea rises, the light fails, lovers cling to each other and children cling to us. The moment we cease to hold each other, the moment we break faith with one another, the sea engulfs us and the light goes out.” – James Baldwin

Rage Against the Dying of the Light explores how we observe, process, and record our times through painting and drawing. The exhibition pays homage to the 1951 poem by Dylan Thomas titled Do not go gentle into that good night, a poem dedicated to his dying father. In our times of death and destruction, violence and bigotry, it is imperative that we rage against the dying of the light of our humanity.

The world is a dark place, but we cannot allow the darkness to win. Seeking freedom and joy for ourselves and others in this darkness requires you to put up a fight. The paintings in the exhibition reference a myriad of stories embodying a fight for freedom. They combine the truth and fictional imagination, which in turn abstracts our reality, not in a way that undermines it, but in a way that invites potential, expansion, newness, and imagination.

Storytelling through drawing and painting as a means of expression and understanding the world around us predates my (our) existence; the same way our ancestors attempted to make sense of the world around them by painting in caves, it is inherently human nature to try and make sense of the world around us through our hands, minds, and eyes. How we process the world and perceive reality is constantly shifting and subjective; it is never fixed. The abstract forms in the paintings become a tool to challenge the viewer and expand how we define and imagine our world.

Text by Hanna Noor Mahomed

Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night (1951):

“Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”

Poem by Dylan Thomas