Written by: Nayha Jehangir Khan
Posted on: October 02, 2019 | 
Hassan Sheikh and the Minature Mughal
Satrang Art Gallery hosted an art exhibition at the Islamabad Literature Festival (ILF), with over 25 artworks by 9 Pakistani artists based nationally and internationally. The theme of the festival was “The focus is the tomorrow, reflecting on the past”, asking prominent intellectuals, writers, artists, musicians, comedians, poets, political analysts, cultural activists and other positive contributors to share their knowledge and experience with the general public of Islamabad.
The show was called “Preserving the Paradigm”, which seamlessly tied into the overarching discussion of ILF. Zahra Khan was the curatorial advisor for the show, and the artists included in the exhibition were Affan Bhagpatti, Anushka Rustomji Musa, Hassan Sheikh, Ahmed Faizan Naveed, Hurmat Ul Ain, Rabbya Naseer, Omar Gilani, Sana Durrani and Saud Baloch.
Dhaba 3000 by Omar Gilani
The artworks on display took viewers on a subliminal journey through Pakistan’s traumatic past experiences, fragmented memories and cultural nostalgia. The artists transformed the restrictive aspects of traditional miniature, painting, printmaking, sculpture, and photography, into ideas and form through modernistic processes. Their works carried the heavy sense of time, place, and memory, contextualized for the Pakistani audience.
Baloch explored the tactile and emotional language of volcanic stone in an excavation-like process, with photos transferred directly onto the rock. This scientific reconstruction has an emotive analysis of the weight, endurance and strength of rock formations. These fossilized sculptures have a historical presence, they seem ancient and otherworldly, akin to relics exhumed from a time capsule. Interestingly, the floor of the exhibition space had a similar pattern to the sculptures, which made time feel irrelevant and warped. The viewer became endlessly caught between the sculptures and marble tiles. Therefore, Baloch’s “Fools Gold” and “Poshida (Hidden)” sculptures are a reminder of our painful past. Hidden into the crevasse on the volcanic rock, are images of innocent children forgotten and buried under history.
Poshida 3 by Saud Baloch
The miniature works by Hassan Sheikh, are self-portraits with a comical, light-hearted and satirical subtext. Sheikh is seen in both pieces with another subject; while one is a photographed version of himself, the other is rendered in a miniature style. In the first piece, he is having a relaxed conversation with a Mughal era subject, whereas in the other painting he is in combat with a British colonist. On a metaphorical level, Sheikh is seen interchangeably as these two contrasting miniature subjects, is he the Mughal or the Briton? Is he at odds with his colonized self, or does he find comfort within his Mughal ancestry? It is possible that Sheikh is both these characters, and is caught between his relationship with the historical Mughal empire and the eventual British colonization.
Some chose to work with the surreal depictions of identity politics in the context of a futuristic, dystopian Pakistan. The digital paintings of Omar Gilani invited viewers to interpret his technologically advanced, yet decrepit wastelands with a heavy sense of self-reflection and empathy. Sana Durrani’s work is an analogy that aimed to understand economic regression and structural destruction of our environment. With a careful balance of light & shadow, cracked lines and symmetry, Durrani uses an angular light coming in from the background to create surreal photographic elements in her 3D paintings. These light boxes have a similar quality as Gilani’s digital paintings. Durrani creates these timeless, nameless yet familiar, and relatable spaces that are confrontational for the viewer. They depict a reality of a crumbling home that has light only because it is broken and has no windows and doors. Durrani creates a sense of alienation, desolation and isolation by blending technology and painting, creating a hyper-realistic experience for the viewer.
Life by Sana-Durrani
Affan Bhagpati takes objects with an antique, Victorian aesthetic, and recreates them with whimsical and theatrical elements from historical and indigenous folklore. His “Bullock on a tea strainer” is made with brass, and shows a stencil cut that dislodged itself from the strainer and now ran on its outer rim. Bhagpati is a masterful puppeteer, whose works bring together an ethnic drama out of an item common in the West that utilized creatively in the East.
Elephant on Plane by Affan Baghpati
Hurmat and Rabbya explore a motif that is symbolically ingrained into our imagination, the ‘Shamiyana’ canopy. They reclaim this fossilized fragment of our collective memory to create a more imaginative representation of it. This motif triggers many familiar spaces in our minds, where tiles of geometrical precision and color are found in our history and culture. Each print unearths another layer of meaning, creating a sense of time across the decades that this motif has been incorporated into decorative mosaics and wedding canopy designs.
Satrang Gallery simultaneously had a panel discussion on the 28th of September at the Serena Hotel hosted by Asma Rashid Khan, with Amin Gulgee and Nilofur Farrukh. It was a heartfelt discussion on the Karachi Biennale 2017, in which 186 Pakistani and 60 international artists showcasing their art works, large and small scale installations and even performance art pieces in 12 selected venues, which included schools, parks, cinema and sites with historical significant. It was a cultural intervention that gave a sense of ownership of the city back to the public. This talk acted as a forerunner to the upcoming Biennale 2019 being held from the 26th of October to the 12th of November 2019. It will be a collaboration between artists and the state that will feature 3 state owned parks, including the Zoo Qasim Park.
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