Written by: Jovita Alvares
Posted on: May 07, 2019 | 
Zindagi ki Jaanch by Masood A. Khan
Koel Gallery started the month of May with the opening of a solo exhibition, ‘Boond boond barasti yadoon ki baarish,’ (Memories come raining down) displaying the works of Pakistani contemporary artist, Masood A. Khan.
Memories are a funny thing. Each time they are recalled, we seem to add another layer to the story and eventually their accuracy becomes questionable. The facts and emotions are usually correct but with each recollection, the mind often exaggerates, adding coatings that either illuminate the memory or cloud it with a film of despondency. However, memories make us who we are; they remind us of where we’ve been, what we’ve done and therefore, teach us how to tackle the future. They also allow us to understand politically and socially charged facets of the world, through our personal experiences.
Masood A. Khan was born to a South Indian family, in a small town near Bengal. After the fall of Dhaka, his family was confined as prisoners of war and eventually moved to Karachi. The artist portrays this extensive personal journey through his paintings, and uses it to create a visual dialogue of the political, economic and religious injustices of society. Entering the gallery, the audience is first met with ‘Dou Buzoorg’ (Two Elders), a painting with Mahatma Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah conversing. The painting, which is monochromatic and ghostly, interestingly has the nations’ leaders surrounded by cats.
Domesticated animals appear in multiple paintings, though catlike silhouettes seem to dominate. While goats and chickens roam around to depict the village life in some works, cats seem to cruise and plop themselves in several others, either as bystanders or interacting with the subject matter such as in, ‘Meri Billi’ (My Cat).
“Transparency is the quintessence of bare reality. It remains constant on my surfaces. I express the stark reality of life - blended with feelings,” says Masood A. Khan. Painting translucent layers through washes of ink have long become synonymous with Khan’s style. This unique form of layering on a flat surface is almost reminiscent of traditional miniature paintings, which, though lacking any translucency, were layered with various forms and figures that allowed narratives to emerge. In a similar way, Khan coats his paintings with multiple beings and objects, painting them with increased pellucidity as he stacks them atop one another to provide a holistic story.
Using subtle shades, Khan distinguishes between objects, foregrounds and backgrounds. Each form is consciously created in distinct and readable shapes, so that even without details, the animal, human or thing is recognisable. The artist also indulges in techniques that elevate the paintings such as the inclusion of calligraphy and controlled ink splatters. A careful selection of contrasting warm and cool tones has been used to cleverly depict evocative scenes from different times of the day. Khan uses partially-aerial perspectives, which give off a sense of peering down into a tinier world in his paintings; a world of memories.
Khan’s work displays the beauty and intimacy of spiritual contentment, and romanticises it in comparison to the wretched complications of the contemporary world. His narratives are personal and evoke multiple emotions through their ghostly appearance. His works create illusions of multidimensionality on a flat surface, and all of this is achieved through the seemingly simple mediums of ink and pencil.
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