In Perfect Reckoning Curated by Noor Suhail

WHEN

Monday 12 October, 2026 10:00AM – Friday 5 February, 2027 09:00PM

VENUE

1971-Design Space, Flag Island

In collaboration with the Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial

1971 – Design Space presents In Perfect Reckoning as part of the Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial, organised by the Sharjah Department of Culture. The exhibition takes its title from the Arabic concept of ḥusbān (حسبان), a word that signifies precise measure, calculation, and the ordering of existence. In the Qur’an, it appears in the verse, “The sun and the moon move by precise reckoning” (55:5), where measure is understood not simply as numerical calculation, but as the principle through which harmony, proportion, and continuity are sustained. This idea resonates with the Sharjah Calligraphy Biennial’s theme of Balance (Mīzān), extending the notion of equilibrium beyond the written letter to encompass rhythm, sound, material, and space.

Bringing together newly commissioned works by Emirati designer Hessa Lootah, Bahraini calligrapher and designer Ali Mlaih, and Pakistani designer Shabir Mir, the exhibition explores how calligraphic thought extends beyond ink and paper into textiles, sculpture, sound, and architectural intervention. Each designer approaches the Arabic letter as a structure governed by proportion, repetition, weight, and movement.

Calligraphy unfolds throughout the exhibition as a living design language that shapes environments, materials, and embodied experience. Balance is expressed as a continual negotiation between presence and absence, weight and lightness, movement and stillness, and tradition and experimentation.

The exhibition embodies the ethos of 1971 – Design Space, where design is a mode of research and material inquiry. Across the exhibition, inherited visual languages continue to evolve, opening new possibilities for contemporary design practice.