JASMINE FLOWER

In Jasmine Flower (Syria), John Black reflects on the fragile balance within a unified identity. The jasmine—long associated with Syria and the cultural image of Damascus—appears scattered across the surface, no longer forming a single, stable presence. A central dark field interrupts the composition, suggesting a space of tension rather than destruction. The blossoms drift across boundaries, creating a quiet sense of displacement, where unity is not lost, but continuously redefined. The work approaches peace not as a fixed state, but as an ongoing process—something that exists alongside internal contradictions. Through fragmentation and lightness, the composition suggests that harmony is not the absence of tension, but the ability to coexist with it.