Written by: Nayha Jehangir Khan
Posted on: March 09, 2021 | 
| 中文
Detail (Finding Simplicity in Complexity-II) by Mudassar Manzoor
A powerful artist collective has emerged from Studio RM, and it is currently taking its artistic might from Lahore to Islamabad. Lahore-based artists R.M Naeem, Sana Arjumand, Syed Hussain, Mudassar Manzoor, Waseem Ahmad, Ali Kazim, Irfan Gul Dhari and Mohammad Ali are currently collaborating with Islamabad’s Tanzara Gallery for a once-in-a-season show. ‘Every Second Counts’ is a metaphysical visual glide through the mind, body and spirit. Each artist presents a series of distinct realities encountering the subject in the form of figures, portraits and objects.
Upon entering the gallery, the translucent watercolour works by Hussain welcome the viewer. The groups of children depicted in his paintings are posing together wearing uniforms, as if the artist had stopped them for a photograph on their walk home from school, perhaps one located in a mountain valley. Their vacant expressions are painstakingly rendered with an awkward body language, that creates a tense self-conscious moment between the children and the viewer. The moment becomes sinister with a rising sense of dread and mischief as if these children were emblems of the fears of adulthood.
Untitled III (Children Series) by Syed Hussain
The ephemeral colour field of Manzoor’s “Finding Simplicity In Complexity”, has intense primary hues that hold at the centre an explosion of gilded paisleys in motion, surrounding a partially obscured figure that draws in the viewer. The triptych is inlaid with recognisable geometrical shapes, amplifying the perfectly rendered avatar with gestural hands and arms. The sharply drawn short strokes of yellow, blue and gold create a moment of transition through which the submerged figure rises to the surface of the painting. The heavy gold cloud descends into the bottom half of the painting “Love”, as a conclusion to the metamorphosis of the physical and spiritual entities in the series.
The next phase of the exhibit features Ahmed’s contemplative tapestries that bring together architectural motifs taken from Greek, Egyptian and Buddhist lineage. There are splashes of earthy tones, silver and gold leaf layering and a presence of ghostly calligraphic strokes that frame the central objects. These recognisable statues are deliberately presented with unique colour palettes. Parts of the statues are replaced with a traditional miniature rendering of lush green foliage, as an intervention creating another dimension of overlapping textures in these paintings.
Untitled III by Waseem Ahmed
The gentle pastel backgrounds of Kazim’s portraits from the series ‘Men Of Faith’, are facing each other. These recognisably Asian men are displayed closely together, suggesting a subtle connection between them. The side glance from one subject facing the other who is lowering his gaze brings the viewer into an intimate dialogue, as if catching them at the tail end of an argument. The silence between the two is felt, their dark skin and pulled back hair are noticeable features with each hair fibre carefully drawn by the artist. Time has been spent painting in the creases of their kurtas, suggesting that these men are South Asian from an undetermined period. An ominous cloud is placed next to the portraits painted with a monochrome gradient that feels heavy. The absence of colour in the gallery space feels threatening, a dark cloud floating amidst the colourful scapes of other works.
The viewer is transported into a carnival of mystery with Dhari’s tryptic titled, ‘Love Story’. His subjects are standing in a row with their backs to the viewer, and what is visible feels like a mirage of strangeness. On closer examination the figures are holding toy objects that are centrally placed. Do they control their human counterparts? The wonderland that Dhari paints gives birth to each subject with carefully chosen attire, props and surrounding environments that create a narrative between the three figures. The subjects to the right and left are painted with their shoulders and arms resting or facing a wall. But the figure in the centre is in motion, she is swaying her braids playfully and her profile becomes visible, looking high into a vast open space. She is free, having released shooting hearts that are shot with a symbolic arrow.
Love Story 1 by Irfan Gul Dahri
Opposite Dhari’s paintings are two portraits by Ali that feel alert and aware, gazing deeply at the viewer. The painting ‘Grandfather’s Roses’, feels like a tribute as it has a celestial radiance crowned on the warriors helmet adorned with calligraphy, paired with a fresh collection of flowers growing out of his beard. The lighting on Ali’s subjects is soft and the skin is smooth, without blemishes or bruising, yet in the painting ‘Automated Showpiece’, the emotional scarring is read through the body language and facial expression of the nude figure. She carries a narrative further layered with the symbolism of henna-painted hands, jewellery and makeup.
Automated Showpiece by Muhammad Ali
Arjumand’s bird series continues to capture the piercing gaze of her majestic creatures. A fiery mystical being hangs in a monumental scale in ‘Celestial’, presiding over the space like a mountain. The accompanying paintings ‘Probe’ and ‘Rise”, are like orbiting satellites. There are feelings of anticipation and suspense present between Arjumand’s paintings, as her bright colour palette, bold strokes of thick paint and adornment of details create a human likeness. The iris and dilated pupils of her birds, the grand robes and exaggerated features are confrontational and aggressive. In all three paintings, it is hard to know if these birds are in flight or resting, a hallucination or premonition. On its surface, the representation feels controlled, but there is a reflective and psychological tension revealing the artists own personal experiences and emotional self-discovery.
Rise by Sana Arjumand
Diving deeper into the etheric plane, the realm painted into reality by Naeem defies the natural world. Using his signature blue gradient of tones, dense splatter of colourful pixels and figurative realism, the artist pushes cinematic boundaries of painting. The huge baby doll floating in ‘Trust’, has an oceanic presence like a whale. The figures ‘Eve’s Ark’, are headed into a pale light travelling on a surreal paper boat. The girl holding on to the box that encapsulates her seems unhappy, her silhouette echoed on the wall with drips and splatter. Are these paintings scenes from dreams or nightmares of the artist? They communicate a longing and a sense of abandonment, with each figure looking away from the viewer.
Content by R.M. Naeem
The gallery space is transformed into a kaleidoscope of intersecting line, form and colour. The textures, splatters, grain and strokes are purposeful, immediate and committed in their expressiveness. The group show feels like one organism, a habitat encapsulating these artists and their artworks that feel alive and evolving together as a whole. There is an interconnectedness throughout the exhibition, we can sense that the origins of their techniques are rooted in miniature. As the viewer, we traverse with them on a contemporary exploration of image-making, storytelling, abstraction and mark-making.
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