“The miracle of Islam is words,” explains Mohammed Bozorgi as he walks me around his show at the Ayyam Gallery in Al Quoz, Dubai. Softly spoken and in hesitant English, Bozorgi proceeds to map out the efforts that went into the large-scale calligraphic paintings that surround us, explaining that he took great pains to keep the rules and to break them.
“Calligraphy has two aspects, meaning and form,” he says. “We have traditional strict rules for the formation of letters that I try to break with my own style. But while I release myself from the form, I never deviate from the meaning. Because the meaning of the words is extremely important.”
Bozorgi’s exhibition, Transcendental Strokes, is his first solo show at the gallery, and his works fill every inch of the vast warehouse space – not an easy task for any artist. Most of the paintings take Islamic calligraphy as a starting point, and are inspired by the tenets of his faith. His methodical techniques transform some of the names of Allah and other key words and passages from the Quran into powerful visual manifestations that allude to metaphysical existence.
“When I see the stars in the sky and how they move around each other, I am inspired by the magnificence of Allah’s creation. It is things like this that inspire me to make paintings that reflect this in its composition.”
One piece in particular that captures this idea is titled He Will Provide. At three metres in height and five in length, it is an interlocking network of hexagons. The words Bozorgi has used are almost illegible, even to an Arabic speaker, and resemble the kind of optical art illusions that became popular in the 1970s. The effect now, as it was then, is mesmerising.
“The letters are loose, I play with them, and so the eye wanders around and gets drawn in. But the paintings themselves are very precise,” he says.
Often rendered in bright colours, Bozorgi says his choice of palette visually captures the radiating energy, and adds spiritual weight.
Each painting is symmetrical and planned out first with meticulous measurements, points of compass and ratio of scale. Bozorgi, who graduated in biomedical engineering, credits his educational background for this approach. His sketches, also exhibited in the show, reveal this precision.
“It is possible to see my works as a product of engineering,” he says. “For example, it is important for me to have an exact circle at the centre of the art work, but inside that circle the words and letters can dance and have a very free movement.”
It is because of this freedom, says Bozorgi, that anyone can appreciate his art, regardless of whether they understand what it conveys.
In The Oracles of Truth, he has used the many names of Allah.
“Because the holy book and the words in it are the miracles in Islam, the words have a kind of spirit. Therefore, you can appreciate my work even if you don’t read Arabic or Farsi and don’t know the translation, because it has its own energy.”
• Transcendental Strokes runs until July 30 at Ayyam Gallery, Al Quoz, Dubai.
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
Barbie
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US households add $601bn of debt in 2019
American households borrowed another $601 billion (Dh2.2bn) in 2019, the largest yearly gain since 2007, just before the global financial crisis, according to February data from the New York Federal Reserve Bank.
Fuelled by rising mortgage debt as homebuyers continued to take advantage of low interest rates, the increase last year brought total household debt to a record high, surpassing the previous peak reached in 2008 just before the market crash, according to the report.
Following the 22nd straight quarter of growth, American household debt swelled to $14.15 trillion by the end of 2019, the New York Fed said in its quarterly report.
In the final three months of the year, new home loans jumped to their highest volume since the fourth quarter of 2005, while credit cards and auto loans also added to the increase.
The bad debt load is taking its toll on some households, and the New York Fed warned that more and more credit card borrowers — particularly young people — were falling behind on their payments.
"Younger borrowers, who are disproportionately likely to have credit cards and student loans as their primary form of debt, struggle more than others with on-time repayment," New York Fed researchers said.
MATCH INFO
Manchester United 1 (Fernandes pen 2') Tottenham Hotspur 6 (Ndombele 4', Son 7' & 37' Kane (30' & pen 79, Aurier 51')
Man of the match Son Heung-min (Tottenham)
The biog
Year of birth: 1988
Place of birth: Baghdad
Education: PhD student and co-researcher at Greifswald University, Germany
Hobbies: Ping Pong, swimming, reading
ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
THE BIO:
Sabri Razouk, 74
Athlete and fitness trainer
Married, father of six
Favourite exercise: Bench press
Must-eat weekly meal: Steak with beans, carrots, broccoli, crust and corn
Power drink: A glass of yoghurt
Role model: Any good man
How to protect yourself when air quality drops
Install an air filter in your home.
Close your windows and turn on the AC.
Shower or bath after being outside.
Wear a face mask.
Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.
If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.