CALLIGRAPHY AS A GRAPHIC

I have been using the beautiful graphics of Islamic writing as a way of generating forms. I have been using Islamic calligraphy as a graphic to generate ideas. I continue to think of the absolutely amazing panels that we saw in Istanbul of religions texts and passages both in museums and at the mosques.

So I was particularly alarmed to learn of the closing of an entire Virginia school system because a teacher asked students to try their hand at copying a Koranic phrase. This event is all over the media, social and otherwise, so if you are not aware of the event, this is a link to one accounting of this cultural event.

Parents then were up in arms, saying things like the school was trying to convert their kids to Islam. Or that the school was trying to invalidate Jesus.

Have we completely lost it? Do we really not have a grip anymore?

I think this exercise was a wonderful attempt for a cross cultural experience. When I was in elementary school, I had no idea what Islam was. That is not surprising, as I really had no idea what any teacher was really trying to teach me. But I digress.

I just somehow think, or dream, that if I were given such an assignment in grade school, it might have awakened me out of my self protecting stupor. This also resonates as some sort of weird opposite of the Charlie Hebdo tragedy, given that both involve a pencil and a piece of paper.

Part of me thinks that these kids are scarred for life. Here they had a chance to actually learn something by drawing. Here they were actually given an assignment which required the application of a pencil to a piece of paper. By drawing, they would have another avenue by which to broaden their cultural awareness. But then this opportunity was taken away, which might then even turn them off to drawing even more than they are culturally conditioned to be.

I have said many times that an educational ideal is for kids to draw. I have said many times that if kids had to draw a pencil, they would know far more about a pencil and the world. I firmly believe that there should be drawing components on standardized tests.  Drawing should be requisite in history, science, language, etc.  And it should not only occur in art class.

But maybe exactly because of all of this attention, the kids will see the fallacy of the objection to this exercise. Maybe this will cause them to really think about graphics and drawing. Maybe this will cause them to really want to complete the drawing assignment. Maybe they will think, wow, drawing with a pencil is a really radical thing to do!

So as my own act of protest, I took most of the Islamic passage (called the Shahada), and used it as the basis for form generation.  So there!