Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
ART lovers in Bahrain will be treated to a display of images created by one of the few women in the Middle East to rise to prominence in the ancient, typically male dominated tradition of calligraphy.
Incomprehensible calligraphic text masquerading across large canvases as language, fusing the traditional and the contemporary, abstract painting and gestured calligraphy, ‘Beyond Words’ by Golnaz Fathi, breaks all the rules.
One recognises that there are scripts in her work, but there are no words to be read. Golnaz has stripped the letters down to bare gestures. The paintings carry traces of meaning that have no known or coded alphabet.
Golnaz spontaneously lays down on canvas letters in Iranian calligraphy as pure forms in a manner that affirms and defies the repressive political regime and conservative society in which they were created.
She said: “In the world of calligraphy it’s the tradition that speaks, you don’t have the freedom of your mind. I have always loved calligraphy, but for me it’s not important what is written there.”
Catch BEYOND WORDS by Golnaz Fathi at La Fontaine Centre of contemporary art until 26th April . The centre dates back to a hundred and 50 years and is located in the heart of Manama close to the old “Suq”.
There will also be a night of SUFI PERSIAN MUSIC with a performance by Salar Aghili on Wednesday, 21 March, at 8pm under the stars in the Moon Courtyard in association with the Theatre de la Ville, Paris.
