Timo Nasseri German-Iranian, b. 1972
Unknown Letter III, 2015
Wood
100 x 152 x 10 cm
39 3/8 x 59 7/8 x 4 in
39 3/8 x 59 7/8 x 4 in
Edition of 3
Courtesy of the Artist and Lawrie Shabibi
Nasseri’s work ‘Unknown Letters’ was inspired by the life of the calligrapher Ibn Muqla (885-940, Baghdad), who attempted to add four letters to the Arabic alphabet in 935. These invented...
Nasseri’s work ‘Unknown Letters’ was inspired by the life of the calligrapher Ibn Muqla (885-940, Baghdad), who attempted to add four letters to the Arabic alphabet in 935. These invented letters got lost and were never added to the alphabet, but his system of proportional letters is still valid today. Nasseri began an in-depth research of the Arabic script and alphabet, paying particular attention to its forms and aesthetics. ‘While searching for the letters, it occurred to me that Ibn Muqla might have seen missing letters in the stars.’ So he started looking for the constellations that might have formed the shapes of these letters in the night sky over Baghdad that would have been visible in 935. Picking out shapes from the stars and using Ibn Muqla's rules of calligraphy and proportion to create the missing letters, Nasseri's research culminates in a series of sensuously carved walnut and steel sculptures.
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