About the work

One of the main themes of Islamic theology is the End of the World and the Day of Judgement, when God resurrects the dead and pronounces them righteous or wicked. It is believed that in the time leading up to this, the text will disappear from the pages of the Holy Qur’an. This is interpreted variously as literal erasing of the words, to a more metaphorical notion that the book will lose its significance or purpose.

Vanished explores what a page of the Qur’an might look like as this day of reckoning approaches.

Date and country of birth

1986, PK

About the artist

Born 1986 UK, Saad Qureshi lives and works in London and Oxford. Graduated from BA Fine Art, Oxford Brookes University (2007); and MFA Painting, The Slade School of Fine Art, UCL (2010).

Saad Qureshi’s practice draws on the ineffability of lived experience: the processes by which we interpret objects and landscapes, and how memory itself processes them over time. His sculptures give form to the ideas or stories by which we give meaning to human existence.

“Qureshi has created his own uncanny world of apparently ‘real’ things that confound the apparent logics of time, space, scale and material. Through his great technical virtuosity… he presents us with his own special world of unconstrained imaginative potential and invites us to participate on our own terms.” – Martin Kemp, Professor of Art History at Oxford University.

His works are held in public and private collections including Leeds City Art Gallery; Dipti Mathur Collection, California; The Farjam Foundation Collection, Dubai; Creative Cities Collection, Beijing; Al Markhiya Gallery, Qatar; Bagri Foundation, London; and Boston Consulting Group.

Selected solo exhibitions include Something About Paradise, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield (2020); When The Moon Split, Aicon Gallery, New York (2017); time | memory | landscape, Gazelli Art House, London (2017); Congregation, Gazelli Art House, London (2017); In the remains, Aicon Gallery, New York (2013); and Other crescents, other moons, Gazelli Art House, London (2012). Selected group exhibitions include Totem, Saatchi Gallery, London (2017); Tread Softly, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Wakefield (2017); Venice Biennale (2015); Légère Inquiétude, curated by Pascale Krief, White Project Gallery, Paris (2014); Threads, Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem (2014); Bursary Show, Royal British Society of Sculptors, London (2012); Creative Cities Collection London in 2012, Barbican, London (2012); Celeste Prize Show, Museum Centrale Montemartini, Rome (2012); Between, Patrick Heide Contemporary Art, London (2010); Art Prize Show, Red Mansion Foundation, London (2009); OBsessions, Modern Art Oxford (2007); and Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy of Arts, London (2006). Public commissions include Assembly, Oxford Brookes University (2018); and Places For Nova, Victoria, London (2017).

Awards include Arts Council England Research Award (2014 and 2019); the Royal British Society of Sculptors Bursary Award (2011); and Red Mansion Foundation Prize (2009). Residencies include BBC2 School of Saatchi, London (2009); and International Art Zone, Beijing (2009).