In the pristine white interiors of the Tarq gallery, the current exhibition, In Letter and Spirit, showcases the work of three artists; each piece is their interpretation of the written word. It’s a strange but enticing thought, to focus on letters and words not just for their significance but also the aesthetic appeal of their shape and form. Making the exhibition more interactive is typographer Zeenat Kulavoor’s workshop on Arabic Calligraphy, held in conjunction with the exhibition.
Kulavoor is a typographer and graphic designer with Mumbai-based design house Bombay Duck and has worked on everything from posters for Meera Sanyal’s movie The Reluctant Fundamentalist to the brand identity of Only Much Louder’s NH7 Weekender music festival. While she started working with the script eight years ago, her passion for Arabic calligraphy started back when she was in school. “I attended madrasas, Islamic religious schools that teach the Qur’an , she . “They only taught us the script, how to read and write it, but not what it means.” Strange as that is, it encouraged her love for the art form and prompted her to do a calligraphy major in her third year of college at the J.J. School of Arts. “I did a lot of research on the subject and even created a manual on how to learn Arabic calligraphy.”
Now, she experiments with the script for various projects she takes on, working with different styles. including the Nasq and Kufic styles of Arabic calligraphy.
Religion is heavily entrenched in the Arabic script, constantly drawing comparisons to the Qur’an . “There’s too much emphasis on religion, I want to keep the calligraphy separate from that,” says Kulavoor. “There’s beauty in it, it’s not just a letter form.”
It’s understandable why she doesn’t want her work to have any religious connotations, given the amount of misconceptions that people have about Islam itself. Past clients haven’t been too keen to hang Arabic calligraphy in their homes and her attempts to learn more about the subject have been met with puzzled variations of “… but why are you doing this?” since she is not a Muslim. Yet, the elegance of the script is enthralling and the fact that not too many designers work with this script encourages the typographer to use it even more.
The workshop, which will span about two-and-a-half hours, will give participants a basic introduction to Arabic calligraphy. Under Kulavoor’s instruction, participants will learn to create all 29 alphabets as well as the numerals, discuss the origin and history of the script and practice exercises with the tool. This will be followed by a live demonstration of the basic letters.
Those present will receive a customised guidebook to help them learn more about the script. They will also get to take home a curated kit with all the material required to practise calligraphy. As Kulavoor says, “It’s a beautiful and difficult script, very different from others in terms of style.”
The Basic Arabic Calligraphy workshop will be held at Tarq Gallery this evening from 6.30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Registration is Rs. 1,700, inclusive of all material. Mail info@tarq.in.
The writer is a freelance journalist
