Paintings talk, tell stories; they inspire and mesmerise, startle and astonish. But at times, like an Amos Ori time machine, take you back to ancient times. The process doesn't require exotic wormholes or theoretical tunnels from one point in time to another; it only involves a psychological visionary force to warp a region of space-time so drastically that lines of time form closed loops. This is exactly what Mussarat Arif's calligraphic innovations do to you when you look at them.
Standing in front of one of her brilliant creations, one almost feels inappropriately dressed for the journey that is about to begin. The more one looks into her globular drawings, the more they draw one in. It is like being pulled into a psychological wormhole and then spat out somewhere in the middle of 600AD where an Islamic city is being found in modern-day Iraq. With the age-old Kufic script encircling the sky like a flying peacock; its letters thick, squat, and unslanted, one cannot walk away from the frame long after one has.
One of the two distinct scripts in the early centuries of Islam, the Kufic script or literally 'the script of Kufah' was historically developed for religious and official purposes back in 638AD. Even though the real connection between the city of Kufah and the Kufic script is unclear to this day, its connection with Arabic, Islam and the Quran is lucid. Some even say that the history of calligraphy in the Islamic world begins with Kufic writing. Back in those days, the Kufic script was particularly suitable for writing on stone or metal, for painting or carving inscriptions on the walls of mosques, and for lettering on coins. Historical facts reveal that professional copyists employed a particular form of Kufic for reproducing the earliest copies of the Quran.
With her latest exhibition at Karachi's Art Scene Gallery, Arif has taken the art of calligraphy to a completely new time zone. With her canvas placed in the modern era and the tip of her brush in Mesopotamia, she has written her pictures on the slivers of time.
Bright and decorative, dramatic and mysterious, the ground of her canvas holds the sacred writings like a lily petal holds a dewdrop and emerges purer and grander through it.
As busy as her canvas-bed may be with dots and drips, heavy strokes and crafty brushwork, every centimetre oozes a sense of peace and gratification, like giving subtle hints of the presence of an archangel in the room. Her colour palette of deep blues, rusty oranges, majestic greens and hypnotising yellows blended with pale reds is both refreshingly traditional and traditionally refreshing.
Considering this was Arif's second solo show in Karachi, one could only hope for more. It is not everyday that one is allowed to be inspired in this urban setting, and inspired by something that could move both a believer and a non-believer, literally and metaphorically. Hers may not be a rare talent, but is sure one that deserves appreciation. The way she gives form to sacred verses in an expressive, harmonious and skilful manner is extremely commendable.
For centuries, artists in the Islamic world have drawn on the heritage of calligraphy to use calligraphic inscriptions or abstractions to put across divine messages. Being a contemporary artist, Arif has taken the same road but with a modern approach. That she has maintained the sanctity and sacredness of the ancient Kufic script is nothing short of a calligraphic revolution.
