Messages on Nature

Messages on Nature:
- as Calligraphy-Typography Explorations in the form of Scrolls:

Calligraphy, the art of the handwritten, has its origins in the written word, the script. Upon its invention, writing did two things: first, it made communication “infinitely elastic”; and, secondly, it meant that societies that had writing could have “infinitely long memories”
And through it all, Calligraphy transcended the everyday script to invest itself with a magical quality, no longer remaining bound by the mere ‘functional’ as most writing tends to be.

The calligraphy on display here are the works of calligraphers from around the world, drawn together through an international contest on the occasion of the annual ‘Typography Day’ events. The theme assigned: Nature.

Given the nature of the work on display, one is tempted to ask: is there a subliminal connection that calligraphy bears toward Nature?
Yes there is. The mystical quality that calligraphy carries about it comes from the idea that calligraphy often resides in the realm of the ‘sacred’ - certainly in large parts of the Indian sub-continent as elsewhere in Asia such as in Japan, Korea, Iran or Tibet.
In much of these parts of the world, calligraphy’s physical (tangible) as well as its metaphysical contexts have had deep roots in Nature and sustainability, with calligraphers from around Asia drawing their essential (seminal, seed) inspirations from the notion of the “Beejakshara” (beej=seed; akshara=the letter).

This, therefore, is the essence of how calligraphy grew across the centuries to become a force of Nature – primarily through the “seed letter” – the primitive entity from which had arisen the creative impulses for all other letters and communication.
Drawing from the ability of the seed to give birth, to generate and then regenerate life itself, calligraphy today strives to build a direct line of communication with its audience through messages that matter. Messages of beauty, of purpose, of learning, of values. It is not surprising, therefore, that the oldest Swedish word for business is narings liv, nourishment for life.
Or, the Sanskrit word aum that signifies the basic primordial sound, the origin of everything. Going beyond the mere messaging, for all practical purposes, the calligraphic expressions on these scrolls could be construed as the cultural representations of the very countries the calligraphers have come from. In that sense, calligraphy has the power to be the flag bearer of a culture’s communications idiom.