THE DESIGNERS
All seven designers commissioned for this initial phase of the Traditional Arts Ltd project have studied at the Prince’s School and all seven in their different ways express facets of what the School can achieve for individual artists and for contemporary design. They come from many different cultural and racial backgrounds, yet all share fundamental ideas about art and design and their place in the world. Rooted in a theory and practice perfected over time, the artists have become free, within the limits of their discipline, to develop new themes and variations, making work that fuses individual creativity with a living tradition.
Samantha Buckley (Kirtim Flower, Mughal Miniatures) chose to develop three designs based on flower motifs drawn from an 11th Century illuminated Islamic manuscript. The universalised representation of plant forms is common to all the traditional arts, a celebration of the natural world and the divine order it reflects. An exceptionally gifted miniature painter, Samantha has brought her strong feeling for colour and movement to bear in her designs.
Amber Khokhar (Flower of Jordan, Black Iris) is a successful graphic designer who came to the School in search of practical skills supported by a philosophical tradition. Amber was given the brief to explore the idea of the beauty and mystery of Jordan. During her research, she hit upon the Black Iris as a symbol for Jordan that reaches back through the country’s relatively short history. Rendering this in stylised form, Amber then developed a design incorporating a circular motif and shades of purple and green that she discovered, used in other Jordanian artefacts.
Katya Nosyreva (Elementa), originally from Russia, was inspired by geometry, one of the three principal elements of Islamic art taught at the School. As well as a practical skill, geometry is taught as the language underpinning many of the sacred and traditional arts of the world. Katya's designs exemplify the infinite vitality and capacity for variation of geometric form.
Elise DeLong (Sun & Moon, Lotus Flower) studied fine art in the United States before coming to the School. Her inspiration too has been geometry, but what she has found there are two complementary designs very different to Katya’s abstractions. Lisa first found a water lily in the geometric forms of square and circle with which she was working and inside the water lily was another symbolic motif, the lotus, which grows from darkness, the central void of the plate, outwards towards the light. The lotus has become her primary theme, but the suns and moons, the circles and square meander design around her plate are also replete with significance.
Unaiza Karim (Zahra) is British, of Pakistani origin.
A specialist in Islamic illumination, Unaiza continues to study with a traditional Turkish Illuminator whose expertise lies in pattern. The beautiful wave-like patterns she has developed for Traditional Arts Ltd are based on the Rumi pattern, a popular Islimi or Arabesque design. Unaiza’s colour palette is also heavily influenced by Turkish Isnik ceramics, with their intense blues, turquoise, pink and gold.
Nassar Mansour (Praiseworthy) is a master calligrapher from Jordan. He studied for his doctorate at the School and is deeply learned in many of the historic traditions of Islamic calligraphy. For his designs he chose two styles of calligraphy and two phrases. As the first design is for plates that will be used for eating, the style of calligraphy is relatively every day, written in Kufic script, and the text chosen is not from the Koran, but a well-known saying: “Generosity is the disposition of the dwellers of Paradise.” In a break with tradition, one loop of the calligraphy breaks out from the rim to curve into the centre of the plate. For the second design, intended for a grand serving dish, Nassar chose a more lapidary style, often used in sacred texts, for the phrase, “Praise be to the praiseworthy”.
Anna Maria Giraldo (Arabesque, Islimi) has worked on the Traditional Arts Limited symbol, a biomorphic design that expresses the concept of growth. As she describes it, the logo emerges from geometry, “the visual language of the archetypes”, which gives the design its order and meaning. She has played with the logo to create a continuously linked six petal flower, to create solar spirals and, inspired by Islimi, to create a plant-like configuration. of seed, leaves and flower. The intricacy of the symbolism as she explains it belies the lightness of touch, the balance of movement and of stasis in these delightful designs.
