Written by: Maha Minhaj
Posted on: April 27, 2018 | 
| 中文
'Folding Shadows' at Koel Gallery
In the show ‘Folding Shadows’ at Koel Gallery, Baber Gull, Hadia Moiz and Sarah Ahmad approach the theme of conscious complexity in their work. Alia Bilgrami, the curator of the show, stated that all three artists play with the viewer’s perception of materials. What ties them together is their current trajectory of work, which talks about the inter-connectedness of life and the sacred geometry prevalent in everything.
Sarah Ahmad showcases a diverse yet detailed body of work for this exhibition. The exhibited work includes modern and traditional techniques of using paper. She uses the paper to create fascinating drawings, which can be best described as drawings of organic forms or drawings of a part of a tree (such as the work Driftwood). The sacred geometry that appears as a pattern on the surface of her paper, talks about the mutual dependency of the cosmos and the human mind; how there is after all an order to the chaos of things in nature and in life. Not only did she create these drawings, her installations with the laser cut, ink drawings installed in Plexiglas were showcased as a free form that projected high and low, creating contrasting shadows on the walls and the ground. All her work managed to visually encapsulate what could be called the summary of our existence.
Babar Gull exhibited a unique series of minimalistic, monochromatic drawings, created using sumi ink. The work was primarily inspired by the traditional art form of Japanese origami, within which symmetry plays an essential role. Using the visuals of three-dimensional origami such as a plane and a paper boat, he translated them into their flat, two dimensional silhouettes. Again, the artist was playing with the perception of the viewer by changing what is always perceived as a three dimensional art form into a two dimensional image. He further plays with the idea of perception by constructing large metallic sculptures of paper planes, where the material used plays a deceptive role. One wouldn’t associate the heaviness of the metal to the lightness of origami paper planes. Another body of work by Gull was a part of his on-going practice, where he has worked with grids and lines. This work is connected to the origami series due to the importance of maintaining the line in the Japanese art form, which can have a significant effect on whether the shape of any model will hold or not.
Hadia Moiz created layered, patterned pieces of acrylic glass sheets with a miniaturist aesthetic. The work drew connections to her two contemporaries, in terms of the monochromatic and linear aspects of it. Moiz plays with the notion of ‘being-there’ and ‘not-being-there,’ the absence and the presence, the negative and positive spaces that her work creates. Thus the body of work is a direct comment on the absence and the presence of being.
It is through these lines, shadows, layers, folds and silhouettes that the space echoed with the voice of one concept, which was realized by the genius of Alia’s curatorial vision.
The exhibition will be on until 3rd May, 2018.
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