Welded steel, 15 x 12 x 12, 2009.
The Prophet is a head that changes category as the viewer walks around it. From the front it is a bearded face under a curtain of long hair. From behind it is a phallus: a smooth, closed dome with a ridged collar and rolled bands below. The two readings share one form.
The expression is weary and patient, and it could be a face about to speak or one that has just stopped.
The hair is cut against the face. It falls in regular, parallel cords, almost mechanical in their rhythm, and the face is modeled in nervous, broken passages. Long hair and a beard are the standing iconography of the prophet.
The title, capitalized and with the definite article, is the standard English designation for Muhammad, and the work was made in 2009, when the depiction of him was a live public question. The front gives the face that Islamic tradition withholds. In the miniature tradition he is shown with the face veiled or replaced by a flame, and here the hair falls over both sides of the head like a hood. The back has no features at all.
