Nora Halimi & Edin Kurtishi
Nora Halimi
Black ink and the white paper are the basics of expression.
Calligraphy is certainly the starting point for my work however, love for literature has played a crucial role in choosing and exploring the cohesion between calligraphy and poetry.
The work investigates the implications of embedding poetry within paper to give the “narrative” a material presence.
I believe in words, in their power, I transcribe poetry texts by contemporary authors. I find in calligraphy the energy and rhythm which bring my compositions to life.
In recent pieces, I have given priority to text, allowing words to form the entire structure. In this set, the shapes of individual letters, words, and phrases dictate the physical form of the page.
Paper is used as substance rather than the traditional substrate of a work of art. Each series of works has offered me an opportunity to manipulate with paper and calligraphic fonts.
The format of these works is fairly small and it requires close attention and an intimate viewing.
The whiteness of the pages seems to function as a background from which the text originates. The words form islands that emerge from this background, charging the page with meaning. The result is a stage where poems feature a play on the concept of white inviting the viewer to raise the curtain, to read, to receive, to reinterpret their meanings.
These works are packages of personal interpretation that simultaneously reveal and obscure what the poems actually contain.
— Nora Halimi, 2011
Biography
Born in Tetovo, Macedonia in 1979.
Graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at University of Prishtina in Kosovo .
Completed an MA in Graphic Design-Typography, at the Faculty of Fine Arts, University of Prishtina. Also, attending MA in Contemporary Art History at St.Kiril and Metodij University, Skopje, Macedonia.
Works at the Faculty of Fine Arts — Graphic Design Department, State University of Tetova.
In addition to her individual work, she had collaborations with other artists. She participated in a number of workshops and artist residencies, both home and abroad. She also participated in artist residency in Cites des Arts, Paris, France.
Edin Kurtishi
Edin Kurtishi’s work strives to relay the atmosphere and emotion of the landscape through his personal experience. It contains the idea of capturing the sublime and those immediate feelings of drama in a continuously changing landscape, which he feels are inexplicable through words and phrases therefore, it drives him to explore and express these emotions through the media of monotype.
Emotions and feelings are revealed through the symbol of the bird as a metaphoric entity and the sky as graphic environment. Birds are a common theme of his imaginative and deeply personal works. They imply concepts of freedom, solitude, and pensiveness and at the same time add a sense of ambiguity to the meaning of his works.
The sky as background heavily influences the simplicity of each work’s composition. The author clearly ties his unrest to the erratic patterns the birds weave in the sky.
Edin Kurtishi’s ability to externalize internal sensations and emotions and re-present them to us in monotypes is intriguing and it offers an experience which the viewer can relate to or envision themselves.
In each work he tries to convey complex and subtle feelings and moods that will evoke an emotional response in the viewer. His works are contemplative and don’t have a singular message.
He only provides the ingredients and lets the viewer define the meaning.
— Nora Halimi, 2011
Biography
Born in Zvornik, Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1977.
Currently based in Tetovo, Macedonia. Graduated from the Faculty of Fine Arts at University of Tetovo, Macedonia.
Works at Procredit Bank, Branch Tetovo. He also works as freelance artist.
