Animated Words

Animated Words are a series of calligraphic animations that take, as their point of departure, one of the most fundamental aspects of Islamic art: the act of writing.
The animations refer to the long history in which, under Islamic law, representation was forbidden and visual arts were limited to decoration, devoid of meaning and narrative. Arabic script was often used to create imagery that appeared to be non-representative, yet contained subtle shapes and forms that alluded to meaning beyond the textual arrangements.
In 1929 Kemal Ataturk banned Arabic script as part of his project to modernise Turkey. The ornamental letters of Ataman's calligraphy, then, also belong to an outcast alphabet and reveal the fracture from the past.
Throughout the series of animations, calligraphic patterns continually change and create new forms and shapes, allowing for a string of new readings. This is interplay between text and image, decoration and meaning, as well as static and moving imagery.