Venetia Porter and and artists Farhad Ahrarnia and Dia Batal join this discussion on calligraphy, Hurufiyya and Letterism examining the modernist and contemporary iterations of these art forms in Arab and Iranian art practices.

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Venetia Porter is a curator at the British Museum responsible for the collection of Islamic art, in particular of the Arab World and Turkey as well as developing the collection of the modern and contemporary art of the Middle East. She was previously curator of Islamic coins in the Department of Coins and Medals. She was curator of the exhibition Hajj: Journey to the heart of Islam (2012) and is the lead curator for the new Albukhary Foundation Gallery of the Islamic world which will open in October this year.

Farhad Ahrarnia was born in 1971 in Iran, and resides in Shiraz and Sheffield.His multidisciplinary practice across a variety of mediums utilises craft traditions as a way of investigating and re-articulating the legacy of modernity and modernism in various geographies including those of Iran and the Middle East. His works are kept in numerous private and public collections, including: the British Museum, Museum of Western Australia in Perth, Los Angeles County Museum and Cartwright Hall Art Gallery in Bradford.

Dia Batal has completed her design studies in Beirut, and is currently based in London after having completed an MA in Design, Critical Practice at Goldsmiths College. The multidisciplinary work she produces is context specific and often enables audience to engage with it. Dia uses Arabic language and text to create artworks that echo cultural and contemporary concerns into our urban public, and private spaces. She has collaborated on outreach projects with the British museum, V&A, The Mosaic Rooms, and INIVA. Dia’s work has been on display in collective and solo exhibitions in art galleries in Beirut, Sharjah, Dubai, Manama, Amman, Paris, Liverpool and in London.