MAKTUB
Traditional and Contemporary Calligraphy between East and West.
The Museum of Islamic and Near Eastern Culture.
2016-2017
Curated by Dr. Sharon Laor-Sirak
MAKTUB
The exhibition showcases traditional works of art alongside contemporary ones, most of them making use of calligraphy on paper. The traditional works present various uses of paper in Islamic lands, and reflect the importance of calligraphy in Islamic culture. These include calligraphic pages and calligrapher’s tools, Qurans, amulets, illustrated books, album pages as well as early printed materials, such as a Quran from the seventeenth century printed in Europe.
The contemporary works on display offer new interpretations of traditional and stylized writing, and were created by the artists: Farid Abu-Shakra, Kutluǧ Ataman, Liron Lavi Turkenich, Kazuo Ishii, Shirin Neshat and Ella Ponizovsky Bergelson.
Center installation: I am Who I am, 2016
Ink on woven cellulose paper, 100x1000 cm
The bilingual (Hebrew, Arabic) object is created to reflect on the relationship between the two sister languages. It is lying on the gap between interference and harmony; the readability is almost disabled due to the weaving technique and yet the result is visually homogenic. The creation process was an examination of the meditative state of repetitive writing by using an ancient writing technique.
