Synopses & Reviews
##Native & ZenTwO have been re-editing Arabic calligraphy and street pop culture since 2004. They revive the graphic and poetic gesture of tradition writing, mixing it with the iconic language of the Western world. #The Sessions by Native and ZenTwO for the 36 Chambers series is a result of their drawing sessions, completely influenced by all the cultural components experienced over the years, all over the world. The outcome is a statement of Modern Cultural Sacking. Drago is the port from which their vessel leaves. The aim is to cancel the distance between cultures and lead them to know each other, discovering new affinities. The overcoming of boundaries is evoked in the making of the book, where the artists melted their drawing styles, visions, ideas, using the Arabic calligraphy as a bridge for visual interaction. Their research, sometimes esthetical, other times expresses radical statements, raw emotions or a subversive cultural comment. So, diversity is not seen as a limit, but an input to dialogue. And a hand tended, from the heart of the banlieau, to the new president Sarkozy.
Synopsis
Paris-based artists Native and ZenTwO work collaboratively on the street-smart, calligraphic, open-ethnic drawings collected in this volume--their statement of Modern Cultural Piracy. Having arrived in France after years of globe-hopping--from Lagos to New York, Cairo, Amman, Frankfurt and beyond--they draw from their pooled cultural backgrounds to create these complex and dynamic investigations.
Synopsis
Drago s 36 chambers series joins an international and multi-cultural tour of street art as it is tossed into a melting pot of calligraphy and graffiti writing from around the world. ZenTwO and Native s work leans towards the raw and finds expression in the uneven in an attempt to access, engage, and integrate vivid emotions in a destabilizing aesthetic. Born in Munich in 1981, half Austrian and half French, ZenTwO was raised between the Middle East and Europe. His partner in crime, NATIVE, was born in Nigeria, studied Arabic graffiti in Egypt and has been based in both Paris and New York. This unlikely and exotic mixture led to the development of their unique iconography that combines calligraphy, illustration, and dynamic paint drips. As two cosmopolitan kids raised across four different continents, we try to allow all of the cultural influences we ve absorbed through the years to represent themselves. These cultures - and their images embody more than a mere visual stock from which we cut and paste into arbitrary collages. They are instead interactive forces that have formed and shaped our views and personalities. Often, these differing elements of our cultural foundation hurl themselves at one another in violent conflict, not only within the birthing of our work, but also our very experiences as human beings attempting to understand and reconcile ourselves with modern society. "
Synopsis
Tossed into a melting pot of calligraphy and graffiti writing from around the world, ZenTwO and Native's work leans towards the raw and finds expression in the uneven in an attempt to access, engage, and integrate vivid emotions in a destabilising aesthetic. Drago's 36 Chambers joins an international and multi-cultural tour of street art with this fresh addition to the series.
Synopsis
Arabic calligraphy is a bridge here, for visual interaction, expressing radical statements, raw emotions or subversive cultural comments. Diversity is not seen as a limit, but an input to dialog. The aim, in this beautiful work, where art, culture and aesthetics combine is to cancel the distance between cultures and lead them to know each other, discovering new affinities. The overcoming of boundaries is evoked in the making of the book, where the artists melted their drawing styles, visions, and ideas. Calligraphy is mixed with the iconic language of the Western world. Linear arabesques and pop images emerge. A new cultural syncretism, where the fine taste for the sign, melts with western iconography. Not only a visual component, but also a message of solidarity, against the paradoxes of globalization: war, intolerance, racism.