NATIVE  &  ZENTWO

We do not expect nor do we get permission to use the visual and cultural components in our works
and often have to steal them. Our combined lives are that of cultural pirates and our works are
a vessel in which we navigate the vast and treacherous seas of culture. In a world of blind patriotism,
technological arrogance, and religious fanaticism, we chose to sail a vessel captained by
two individual artists and crewed by the many and diverse individuals and elements from the cultures
we come across in our travels thus far. It's these diverse cultural elements that define
our lives and works.

This partnership was forged primarily on the basis of our similar backgrounds. The fact that we are
two Artists in our mid 20’s, raised across 4 different continents (and especially our contact and
experiences with the Arabic culture) helped to provide us with a bunch of common interests and
similar beliefs that led us to join forces against the spreading of the trend, "The Clash of Civilization". 

Our Cosmopolitan experiences have taken place along the riverbanks of the Nile in Cairo, the Hudson
in New York, the Niger River, the Main in Frankfurt and we are currently stomping the banks of the
Seine in Paris in our continuous battle against the spread of cultural conflicts and misunderstandings.

" Will Work For Peace " - Acrylique et Encre - Acrylic and Ink - Native & ZenTwO - 2006

Yet throughout the course, two unwritten (and in our opinion unwarranted) laws maintained a firm but
inconsistent grip on the practice of Arabic calligraphy; 1- its nearly inseparable association with
religion. 2- Its detachment and barricading from all things "figurative". True of any art form however,
as it widens, encompasses and interact with new cultures it's bound to undergo some degree of
influence. In this respect Arabic calligraphy is no exception. Indeed as soon as it moved further from
The arabian peninsula coming in contact with newly annexed regions the influx of cultural diversity
forged a significant change: the regionalization of calligraphic schools and styles such as Ta'liq
(Farisi) in Persia and the latter Deewani (Divani) in Turkey. The "foreigners" soon began to embrace
and master its techniques  integrating in it their traditional visions (although sometimes under direct
scrutiny of the Caliphate) which often entailed "figurative" and other alien features. In fact as far back
as the Fatimid/Abbasid epochs (750-1258) one sees calligraphers experimenting with variety of figures
ranging from human to plants, animal to objects. Nonetheless these are rare and ofttimes isolated
experiments. However, none of the above factors fully succeeded in overcoming those "two unwritten
laws".  Arabic calligraphy still remains strongly associated with religion and (perhaps not as strongly)
separated from "human figure"  

Ours has been an effort to further secularize and amalgamate calligraphy with figurative
drawing/painting working together since 2004.  In so doing we aim to bring together both our personal
and collective experiences. It's through foundations in visual communication that we subsequently
arrived at this junction. Yet certain aspects of it became challenges worthy of overcoming, instead of
depicting symbols head on we aspire to endorse them with emotional sensitivity, To rid the sign of it's
inherent nudity hence personalize it. It just so follows that calligraphy possesses a gestural quality
that we are both fascinated and experimented with.

The working process involves a
level of spontaneity that we've been
trying to achieve, staking it all on
the moment to moment expression
of oneself, engaging time and
liberating the work from excessive
luggage.

Working as a team naturally affords
us the counterbalance that one
hardly attains as a soloist.
A painting becomes a performance,
an improvised conversation, a
collective effort.

Native &  ZenTwO

We share a common background that is of standing at the
threshold between Occident and Orient, the same philosophy
of Art, and a constant appetite for new styles and mediums.
The current World events and or cultural interaction provide
a suitable and profound platform to both formulate and manifest
our ideas, amplified by hopes to increase exchange/dialogue
between the afore mentioned cultures.

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