eL Seed, born to Tunisian parents in a quiet, Paris suburb, became interested in street graffiti at a young age, tagging his name after El Cid, the eleventh-century Spanish knight who also existed between two, liminal cultures, Christian and Muslim. Although growing up speaking Arabic, he was not literate in the language until he began to study calligraphy, which he eventually imported into his street painting. Originally an urban muralist, eL Seed has realized his ‘calligraffiti’ in every medium including paper, metalwork, sculpture, architecture and cityscapes. Though not always readily legible, the characteristic rippling designs of his calligraphic compositions flow easily into new contexts, creating an expressive interface between cultures.
These prints come from a series on which el Seed continues to work, based upon an experience he had in the Paris suburb of Montreuil, a village that invites artists to paint murals on residents’ walls. A homeowner there reacted angrily to eL Seed’s mural painted in 2012 and demanded its removal. A week later, the city offered eL Seed a nearby wall. Instead of responding with the defiant French expression ‘ta geule!’ (your face) translated to Arabic, he chose the phrase ‘open your heart’ (كبلق حتفا). These prints, which bear both the peace offering and the insult in their title, were inspired by that exchange, a subject of continued interest to the artist. eL Seed’s process still calls for a spray can of paint. These printed compositions are portions of a larger painted creation, offering part of a layout that continues well beyond the picture plane. A large mural by eL Seed can be found at the University of Houston’s Blaffer Art Museum.
