In Please Do Not Step: Loss of a Magnificent Story (2017), Abbas’ fantastical text points to the great tradition of story-telling in the Islamic world (dastangoi), with its sense of loss and legacy. The text is florid and obscure with a multiple of possible readings. References include a flying carpet personified, its possible transformation into an aeroplane and the scattering of migrants around the world’s oceans. The shape of the text block recalls that of a magic carpet zooming into space. The original, temporary, version of this work was commissioned by the V&A Museum, London for the Jameel Prize in 2009 and was made from paper cut out with Islamic geometric patterning: successive viewers eventually obliterated it. The new version is inlaid in marble (from Baluchistan, Pakistan), a technique seen on Mughal architecture, transforming what was a temporary work into a permanent, universalized rendering.
