Interview: eL-Seed

“CALLIGRAFFITI” ON THE FACE OF THE STREET

"I try to respect the precepts of Islam in the representation of human beings. However, beyond that, my approach of art is spiritual and philosophic. Every painting is a questioning of a story, an ideal, a concept. Islam is a fundamental part of my identity and my art is a quest for identity." (eL-Seed)

IAM: How did you start making the graffiti art? Have you previously dealt with some other form of art, like painting?

eL-Seed: I’ve always been drawing and painting, ever since I can remember. I started graffiti in 1998 in Paris, where I was born. I was influenced a lot by some old school French Graffiti Artists. Like most graffiti artists, I started by simply tagging my graffiti name. I then began to customize clothing, baseball caps and shoes, I did this for several years. In 2004, I found the need to learn about Arabic calligraphy but unfortunately I never found any lessons in Paris. During this time I began to reproduce calligraphies created by some of the great masters of calligraphy, such as Massoudy. In 2006 I left Paris for New York City, where I lived for 2 years. In 2008, I settled in Montréal where I met a Graffiti artist named Hest. With his inspiration and help, I began to paint again seriously and develop my own street art. My passion for painting and my desire to use calligraphy combined together to create my current arab street art, through which I believe I have found my vocation.

IAM: In your work you use Arabic typography. The graffiti art mostly makes a deviation from the classical styles of calligraphy and creates new ones. Can you tell us about your style?

eL-Seed: I call my style ‘Calligraffiti’, a cross between Arabic calligraphy and graffiti. I paint the main texts solely in Arabic but I do include a French or an English phrase so that more people can understand the meaning of the calligraphy.

The rest of the article you can read in the magazine.