Jameel Prize 4
The Jameel Prize Exhibition is usually displayed in the V&A’s main contemporary gallery. This year the 4th edition of the prize was exhibited at the Pera Museum in Istanbul.
The previous winner, Dice Kayek won the £25,000 Jameel Prize 3 for Istanbul Contrast, a collection of garments that evoked Istanbul’s architectural and artistic heritage.
“The Jameel Prize is an international award for contemporary art and design inspired by Islamic tradition. Its aim is to explore the relationship between Islamic traditions of art, craft and design and contemporary work as part of a wider debate about Islamic culture and its role today.”
Winner Ghulam Mohammad
Ghulam Mohammad from Lahore, in Pakistan won the Jameel Prize in 2016 for his unique collages that lift Urdu script off the printed page and onto a new canvas, accompanied with gold and silver leaf and ink, creating new dimensions and meaning.
I had the good fortune to meet Ghulam while he was an artist in residence at Liwa Art Hub in the United Arab Emirates in 2014. He was part of the collective of artists participating in the Upcycle Festival.
Ghulam was focused on exploring the notion of language and identity, recomposing the text to create new works and freeing the text from its original printed page. What struck me about Ghulam was his methodical approach to his craft, the repetition of cutting and sticking, evoking the quality of meditation. Due to the delicacy of his work he would often work in silence, without air conditioning so as not to disturb the intricate cutting process of the Arabic script.
Art works by Ghulam Mohammad, Bahia Shehab and Lucia Koch.