On display: Calligraphy takes a backseat to unique materials

Azeem Iqbal’s calligraphy exhibition opens at Nomad Art Gallery.

ISLAMABAD:

Moving away from the usual norm of oil on canvas, Azeem Iqbal strives to capture the essence of Muslim culture with his calligraphy. His latest exhibition opened at the Nomad Art Gallery on Tuesday.

The exhibition features 23 large framed works that are a mesh of materials put together to form a large canvas. However, Quranic verses are not the artist’s sole concentration. He has also depicted the Alam set – symbol of Hazrat Abbas’s hand and the flag that serves as the emblem of Shia sect – with Irani mosaic prints.

Another collage made with gold leaf paper denotes the opulence of Arab countries.

Blue-painted mosaic tiles, hand-carved wooden minarets set between handmade papers with Quranic writings are all part of his work.

For Iqbal, calligraphy was a “divine calling that his mother saw in a dream 15 years ago”. Since then, he has been working on a range of materials including sheep skin, wood, metal, leaves and bones that were originally used as mediums to note down Quranic texts. “I work solely with what was worked upon years ago, the idea is not just to concentrate on holy scriptures, but also the process,” he said.

While Iqbal’s lacks finesse in the calligraphic technique, with lines that require more details, his work is not about calligraphy in its purest sense. It has nothing to do with the various forms of calligraphy, with each form having multiple variations.

His work is his own creation, stressing more on the meaning of written words than structural variations. The words are used primarily to express feelings, emotions, thoughts, wishes, desires and commands.

Iqbal perhaps needs to push boundaries with experimentation – his usual approach of using original materials has become predictable.

The exhibition continues till October 8.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 4^th, 2012.