This beautiful exhibition of contemporary art from the Middle East and North Africa uses the written word as a common thread to draw together artists who incorporate script or scripture into their art in various ways, despite their geographically and culturally diverse traditions. The museum's acquisition policy has deliberately favoured works that complement its older collections of 'Islamic' art, but this does nothing to diminish the startling diversity and quality of work on show. If anything, it serves to underline the contemporary relevance of the region's literary and religious traditions.
A powerful illustration of this relevance can be seen in the Great Court. Here, Iraqi sculptor Dia al-Azzawi's 'Blessed Tigris' (2006) pushes its multicoloured fibreglass bulk into the air like an organic minaret. Inscribed around the base are lines by the modern Iraqi poet Muhammad Mahdi al-Jawahiri, written in the 1960s but resonating prophetically today:
O wanderer, play with a gentle touch;
Caress the lute softly and sing again,
That you may soothe a volcano seething with rage
And pacify a heart burning with pain.
Fittingly, the exhibition opens with a room dedicated to 'Sacred Script': it was the advent of Islam, and the need to record the text of the Qu'ran that galvanised the development of a written language for Arabic, and influenced the many calligraphic styles whose heritages these artists extend. The breadth of Islamic sacred tradition is well illustrated: this small room encompasses both Haji Noor Deen Mi Guanjiang's hanging scroll in the sini script of Chinese Muslim tradition, and Mouneer al-Shaarani's interpretation of a Biblical verse from Matthew, 'By their fruits ye shall know them', as well as work by Sudanese, Iraqi, Lebanese and Japanese artists.
The next room, 'Literature and Art', contains works that take as their point of departure secular texts, the rich and living traditions of pre-Islamic, Persian and Arabic poetry. Some artists, such as Hassan Massoudy, follow a long tradition of using calligraphy to illustrate verses. The painting that appears on the exhibition poster is his rendering of lines by the mystic poet Ibn 'Arabi (d.1240), loosely translated as:
I follow the religion of Love
Wherever its caravans head
For Love is my religion and faith.
Other artists approach the word not so much as bearer of lexical meaning to be embellished, but as a pure element of visual composition. Shirazeh Houshiary, an Iranian-born artist also known for her sculptures, is showing etchings of black overlapping circles on coloured fields. The shapes, reminiscent of molecules, solar systems, or the circular Dervish dance, are formed from the chants and prayers of the Sufi mystic Jalal al-Din Rumi, which have been overlaid until they become unreadable strokes. In the exhibition catalogue, the artist states that 'the word loses its meaning and form is born from this', a philosophy that echoes Rumi who wrote, 'when the body is shattered, the spirit lifts its head'.
The shattering of bodies - not as metaphor, but as daily political reality in Iraq, Lebanon and elsewhere - is a topic that many of the artists address, shoring the fragments of ancient cultures against the burned libraries, uranium-littered battlefields and looted museums of today. Suad al-Attar's Chagall-like figures float above lines by the early Arab poet Layla bint Lukayz (d.483): 'Sorrow alighted in my heart, and I melted / Even as lead melts when engulfed by flame'. Several of the artists, including al-Attar, live abroad - many in France, the US or the UK. At a time when the racist rhetoric of far-right parties is gaining support in Europe, their work testifies to the artistic rewards enjoyed by societies that welcome difference and don't force cultural homogeneity on their citizens.
Some of the most multi-layered and beautiful works in the exhibition are artists' books, including unique handmade objects, such as Etel Adnan's transcription of Nelly Salameh Amri's poem on the Lebanese Civil War, Blessed Day. Adnan has produced a Japanese-folded book, covered in Arabic script overlaid with lines and geometric symbols in watercolours reminiscent of Klee's Tunisian paintings. Other books are printed, such as Kamal Boullata's Beginnings, which juxtaposes English and Arabic versions of poems by the great contemporary Syrian/Lebanese poet Adonis with abstract colour fields that enhance the poems' moods. Elsewhere, the Algerian/French artist Rachid Koraïchi lends his distinct Maghribi illustrations to Mohammed Dib's poem on war and loss, L'enfant jazz: magical talismanic letter squares are interspersed with shapes derived from palms and doorways.
Separate rooms are dedicated to works that deconstruct script as a basis for abstract compositions, and to those that use text, often in the form of newsprint or graffiti, as a component in politically conscious works. A free leaflet provides translations of many of the poems, and a clear introduction to the traditional calligraphic scripts, in this excellent and timely exhibition.
James Wilkes
