Client: Shubbak Festival
Role: Executive Producer, Creative Technologist
About The Project
This immersive and interactive exhibition explores the practice of Arabic calligraphy as an artform spanning the spiritual and material, the visual and the verbal. In Sound & Silence, internationally renowned calligrapher Soraya Syed dives into the essence of her practice: the geometry of Arabic letters and their connection to the human form.
Through a display of photographic images and a series of artworks and sculptures, Syed draws an unprecedented connection between the human body in contortion and calligraphic form. Her sculptures are formed from white Carrara marble dust from the same quarries that provided Michelangelo his single block of stone for the Pieta. White Carrara marble dust is a basic ingredient of the ink Syed uses – an innovative formula specially blended by artist and ink-maker Jason Logan.
About My Process
Venturing into a new cultural sector, I supported Arabic Calligraphy artist Soraya Syed and the Shubbak Arab culture festival as a technical advisor and executive producer in their exploration of digital modalities. I provided expertise in projection mapping with sculpture, bridging traditional calligraphy practice to modern audiences. Collaborating with videographers, composers, and technicians, I orchestrated a cohesive technical response to meet the artist’s requirements while ensuring ambitious ideas remained within budgetary constraints.