Mohammad Ali Talpur

Alif, 2019 – 2020
Ink on paper, dimensions variable

Language is one of the biggest inventions of humanity. Writing has been a method of documenting human ideas, information, creative expressions and secrets from private to public usage.
In many civilisations,”calligraphy” (text) as a tool to preserve knowledge is perceived as being the most important and reliable practice. In fact, the style, scale, and colour also contribute towards expanding and in some instances altering the intended meaning. Thus the medium is not separate from the message. Evidence of this has been observed, the way different techniques, surfaces, tools and formats have been used from the Palaeolithic period, Vedic age, Egyptian and Indus Valley Civilisations, and Chinese, Arabic, Latin scripts to our own times, when written words are viewed and used on paper, and on the screen of an electronic gadget. In my work, I have tried to translate text, and convert sounds (attached to it) into pictorial form, and make it free from its purpose of readability and communication. I have tried to capture the basic structure and geometry of calligraphy, like visual poetry inscribed in ink on paper. So if someone does not understand the historical, cultural and religious context, the formation of lines, contours of shapes and movement of marks still provide a different level of recognition, comprehension and pleasure

محمد علی تالپور