Perle Magazine - Spring 2018 Perle Magazine - Spring 2018 | Page 30

Working independently towards the
exhibit, both Ebrahim and Elisabeth say
they kept their works apart from the other
so as to not to have a cross influence, yet
their art pieces still beautifully merged
together to create an extraordinary exhibit.
Elisabeth’s pieces are part of a body of
work created over the past five years but
were chosen especially for the exhibit, as
they reference different societies between
Al Andalus, Morocco, poetry, and then
going via the Middle East and this part of
the region. Elisabeth worked with different
poems from different times, such as Labid
bin Rabiah’s Mu’allaqa, also known as
‘The Golden Ode’. She then produced 8
more works that were inspired by different
aspects and different elements of the
history and cultural heritage of Bahrain, the
Pearling being her most important piece.
For Ebrahim, though he is recognised for
his visual paintings which have calligraphy
as an aesthetic addition, his mastery and
focus on classic calligraphy comes as
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SPRING 2018
somewhat of a surprise to the audience.
Working with the classic academical Arabic
calligraphy which is based on a point
system, the works produced by Ebrahim are
very precise, and an art that is perfected
through many years. Producing geometric
patterns using carefully selected Islamic
scripture, the idea behind Ebrahim’s
work was to send out a message to the
audiences to be kind to one another, while
simultaneously maintaining the value and
art of Islamic calligraphy, in contrast to
Elizabeth’s freestyle calligraphy style and
collage pieces. Her pieces, she explains,
are designed in that manner due to her
artistic studies in Florence combined with
her multilingual talent, which allowed her
to use Arabic expression as her choice of
style in her work. Yet, despite the difference
between the techniques, it was indeed
the calligraphy which was a common
denominator and was the binding element
between their respective bodies of work.