“In this project, I use light as an artistic element to illuminate the dark corners and surfaces in an attempt to visualise the question of the nature and identity of language and, consequently, our reality and identity.”

– Fahed Halabi

  • Liminality is a philosophical term that describes the threshold state resulting from the collision of two different worlds or states of mind, which is characterised by extreme ambiguity and vagueness. This is also the case when two different cultures collide, resulting in these blurred states. The same term is also used to describe an individual who is transitioning into a new phase of life or who lives torn between two cultures.

    Caligraphy is undoubtedly one of the most important characteristics of a culture. Arabic calligraphy was and still is strongly associated with the texts of the Koran, Hadiths (the traditions of the Prophet Muhammad) as well as classical poetry and spiritual texts. Consequently, there is a certain alienation and a clear distance between the modern and everyday text and this calligraphy.

    In my work, I have taken random texts written in the vernacular from the Whats App and written them in the classical script with the intention of demystifying the classical Arabic calligraphy and subjecting it to everyday use.

    Consequently, if we wanted to analyse this reality better and more closely, we should see this work as an attempt to seek both the identity of language and our own identity precisely where the boundaries between the light and dark, the clear and unclear, the legible and illegible, the used and unused and the living and silent are quite blurred.

    I see my occupation with calligraphy more as a hobby than a profession. And it's been a long time now since I've had this premonition to incorporate and instrumentalise this hobby into my art.

    In this project, I use light as an artistic element to better illuminate the dark corners and surfaces in an attempt to visualise the question of the nature and identity of language and, consequently, our reality and identity.