Lawrie Shabibi is pleased to present TEXT ME, a group exhibition by contemporary artists from the Middle East, Iran and South Asia. TEXT ME looks at the unusual variety of ways these artists are incorporating text into their practice, breaking from the clichés concerning text based work in the broader region.
In TEXT ME content and context are paramount- how the format and materials of the work and placement of words within it can affect the meaning of those words and give them an alternate connotation. The exhibition comprises photography, print, sculpture and installation and works on paper. Some artists give cryptic or absurdist messages, while others produce works that on the surface appear calligraphic, but in fact break the conventions of calligraphic painting, question the viewer’s expectations and even prompt questions about the place of such work in the market.
Hala Ali (b. 1986, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) Hala Ali presents four works including a major installation, which incorporates her statement on the Structuralist philosophy of language endlessly repeated and woven together so that the vertical and horizontal strands intermesh. The structure of the works is a visual analogue of the content of the text. Ali is a Dubai-based artist whose work has featured in Edge of Arabia exhibitions in Istanbul and Dubai
Aya Haidar (b. 1985, Lebanon) London-based Haidar’s work focuses on the recycling of found and disposable objects. Her works that explore loss, migration and memory, with a particular focus on the Middle East through the histories contained within aged, and culturally specific objects. She reuses objects to recreate narratives and explore memory with a focus on older objects or buildings from previous generations.
Behdad Lahooti (b. 1976, Tehran, Iran) Lahooti’s bronze sculptures from his Chahanchah (“King of Kings”) series take the form of pipes used in the plumbing of bathroom appliances, pierced by marks that resemble the cuneiform alphabet of Achaemenid Iran. By juxtaposing this alphabet with familiar practical appliances, Behdad questions the relation of the so-called 2,500 years of civilization to the contemporary Iranian heterogeneous contradictory absurd culture.
Muzzumil Ruheel (b. 1985 Lahore, Pakistan) Trained first as a calligrapher and then in the plastic arts at Beacon House National University, Lahore, Muzzumil’s work subverts the conventions of calligraphy. Two of his series are featured here, the cartoonish The word we live in, built up of the accumulated scribblings that record his everyday conversations, and What is Written, which replicate the format of sacred khatt, but on closer inspection spell out pop English phrases and banalities.
Dariush Nehdaran (b. 1984 Isfahan, Iran) Photographer Dariush Nedharan shows the view from the driver’s seat of Tehrani mopeds. Framed by the small windscreens favoured in the city, these mini-panoramas are adorned with sacred texts, inverted, as seen from behind.
Yashar Samimi Mofakham (b. 1979 Tehran, Iran) Samimi Mofakham is a calligrapher and print maker based in Tehran. His Paper Balls show discarded pages of Farsi poetry in scrumpled-up balls- allusions to the current status of visual and literary culture of his country, whilst in The Existence, his continual repetition of words over and over gives the works the appearance of constellations- almost completely black with flashes of white.
UBIK (b.1985 Kerala, India) The Dubai-based Indian artist UBIK works in several media and draws from diverse influences including music, film, print, street art and anarchic existentialism. His work takes a cynical, humorous and absurdist look at clichés that laden today’s society. He presents three works, RANT#1 and RANT#2, which mimic memorial plaques with preposterous inscriptions, and ERGO, a banner which states his manifesto.
