One Week at the Museum - Calligraffiti workshops by eL Seed

These workshops brought together the creativity of the participating high school students and eL Seed’s particular style of Arabic Graffiti and produced stunning results. Due to time constraints, the Muslim tag artist designed each mural beforehand. This also enabled him to focus on teaching the participants graffiti techniques and more generally coach them in the artistic process.

The artist explains the project and its outcome: “The 5 x 2 m murals were created during day-long workshops, in which students learned graffiti techniques, designs and lettering styles. The purpose of each workshop was to introduce Calligraffiti to youth who either have or have no previous experience with the art process. And the desired outcome of these workshops was to instil feelings of artistic agency and pride in realizing large-scale masterpieces in a group environment.”

As the week came to end, eL Seed, who was at first surprised by the MIA’s invitation, realized that the museum’s conception of Islamic art was wide and open, encompassing not only the past but also the present. Honoured to have been part of this innovative project marrying, akin to his own art, the traditional and the contemporary, the young Montreal-based artist acknowledges that its success was ultimately due to the dedication of both the MIA staff and the project’s participants.

http://elseed-art.com
http://orangerine.com
http://mia.org.qa