Venue:
Huntingdon Road, New Hall, Cambridge CB3 ODF.

Dates and times:
25 September – 3 December 2004
9am-5pm.

Organised by:
New Hall (University of Cambridge)
in association with
The Iran Heritage Foundation.

Supported by:
Arts and Humanities Research Board, AHRB.

Introduction:
The exhibition consists of silk-screen prints of ten calligraphic shape poems from Hafez in Persian, alongside their English translations.  In addition there will be several unique calligraphic pieces based on the same designs. The centre piece of the show is a hand printed artist's book, made in an edition of fifty, containing all the shape poems and essays by Dr Parvin Loloi and Professor Robert Hillenbrand, on 'Hafez' and 'Figural calligraphy' respectively.

Despite many attempts, the symbolic language of mystic love in the poetry of the medieval Persian masters, continues to defy satisfactory translation. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Divan of Hafez, so beloved of the Iranians, where meaning seems to shift with each new reading of his poems.

This exhibition aims to show an artistic response to the world of Hafez's symbolism, making 'visual' translations of some of his poems, using the ancient Persian technique of figural calligraphy to make new shape-poems. 
Jila Peacock is an Iranian-born painter and printmaker, living and working in Scotland.  She is a Visiting Scholar at New Hall, Cambridge.

Enquiries and RSVP:
Sarah Greaves, Tel: 01223 762227, skg22@cam.ac.uk.

Admission:
Free (no admission without RSVP).