In her works Golnaz Fathi combines traditional calligraphy with contemporary artistic expression by stretching the boundaries of the very concept of calligraphy: while maintaining the visual essence of the written word, Fathi writes what she calls non-writings, that is, writings devoid of semantic value and intended to be interpreted not with the eyes but through the heart. The inspiration for the scrolls in this exhibition comes from the poetry of Jalal al-Din Rumi (1207-1273). Each scroll is reminiscent of a litany, a haunting repetition of forms that we would like to read but cannot just as the artist cannot read them, despite having had Rumi’s poem in mind as she wrote them. These non writings seem to be a negation of codified language, the paradoxical image of the impossible attempt at a real communication of being.

WORKS ON DISPLAY

لقد كنت ميتًا، لقد ولدت من جديد؛ كنت أبكي، أصبحت أضحك؛ وصلت أمة الحب؛ فصرت أمة أبدية.
Ero morto, sono rinato; ero il pianto, sono diventato la risata; arrivò la nazione dell’amore; Sono diventato una nazione eterna.
I was dead, I am reborn; I was the cry, I became laughs; nation of love arrived; I became an everlasting nation.
Rūmī
2008. Three rolls, canvas, acrylic, white stitched thread. 800×57 cm

BIOGRAPHY

Golnaz Fathi (Tehran, Iran, 1972) graduated in calligraphy from the Calligraphy Association of Iran in 1996, a year after graduating in Graphic Design from Tehran’s Azad Art University in 1995. In the same year she received an award as the best female calligrapher, one of the few artists to have studied calligraphy in Iran at such a high level.
In her works, Fathi transfers the forms of Persian writing into a personal and abstract artistic language. As an Iranian woman artist in a fragmented and disassociated modern world, Fathi began to pursue abstract impulses early on and to write texts that cannot be deciphered but are charged with the emotions and feelings that the forms of writing themselves convey.