Written by: Irtiza Ahmed
Posted on: October 19, 2018 | 
| 中文
Deep Dream (i) by Atif Khan
Muhammad Atif Khan’s new series, ‘Dreamscape’ is being exhibited at Tanzara Gallery, Saidpur, and takes you through a surreal journey executed in archival inkjet on hahnemühle paper. Atif Khan has widely exhibited his work both in Pakistan and abroad, and has won several international awards. Nearly everyone is familiar with his site-specific installation, ‘City within a City’ set up at Istanbul Chowk, Lahore, as part of the Lahore Biennale Open Call Competition, which he won in 2015. The ‘Dreamscape’ series is a solid example of the evolution of art in the digital age, with the series of 17 prints created through a kaleidoscopic composition of borrowed imagery, all signifcant in the subcontinent for different reasons.
Dreams are the manifestation of your subconscious mind, and we get to see this fantastical world through Atif Khan’s pineal eye. The world, thus created, is a bright and highly saturated combination of graphical compositions and organic elements, like trees waves and clouds from the Mughal and Persian miniature paintings. These set up a backdrop for some unlikely characters, such as toy tin boats, fishes and birds from Pakistani truck art, and biological hearts. A recurring character is the black and white miniature Mughal man, who is sometimes shown busily engaged in archery and riding horses, and is sometimes riding bicycles and fishes. The dichotomous and unusual combinations of these elements, and the strange storylines created, add to the dream-like nature of the series.
As Atif Khan puts it, “When I create my work using the juxtaposition of images of diverse and contrasting environments in one space; it subverts their original contextual meaning and suggests new stories, which generally revolves around the social, economical, political or historical realities... The use of Mughal iconography in my work expands the time zone of my canvas, from the present day to a few hundred years in the past, which help the viewers to free their minds from the limitations of the real time and to enter into an imaginary world.”
As new meanings and timelines emerge, the work itself draws the viewer in, in a way much like our dreams do. The larger pieces, such as the Lost Garden, and the Seven Skies are so richly detailed that it’s easy to get lost in the fine lines and the captivating stories. Characters are tucked in throughout the geometric configurations, and each fresh viewing reveals further subtleties.
Another recurring element found throughout the series is the checkered weave pattern of the keffiyeh scarf. The pattern is disguised in the prints as waves, and is the star element in the piece 'Seven Seas,' where the black and white pattern is set against a pale blue backdrop, as well as Land Escape (ii) in which the checkered pattern is in a red and white. It is left up to the viewer to draw an association with the political meaning of the scarf, due to its adoption as the symbol of Palestinian nationalism, or view it in light of its cultural significance in the Middle East.
Each individual element in Khan’s work holds significance, for the artist, but also for the viewers; whether by evoking nostalgia or pushing towards new meanings, all of this comes full circle to the act of dreaming. For the act of dreaming, much like Khan’s work, brings forth all our experiences, memories and exposure to the world, to the forefront of our consciousness.
The exhibition goes on till 31st October, and should not be missed by art aficionados of Islamabad.
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