Written by: Nimra Khan
Posted on: December 06, 2018 | 
| 中文
Detail of Baatin-e-Aqs by Laila Rahman
Social critique through religious and historical iconography and symbolism, has always been an integral aspect of Laila Rahman’s art practice. But in her latest body of work at Koel Gallery, “Meem Mashriq, Meem Maghrib,” her usual figurative imagery has been replaced with a more abstract approach, and themes of feminism give way to broader concerns about the state of the world. She quotes Iqbal to define the crux of this series of works, “The East is in ruin, and the West in even greater ruin. The whole world is dead and without the urge to seek and search.”
The dark roughness of her surfaces and colour palette for these works reflect a sense of hopelessness with the world, where in every direction, both literal and figurative, a certain sense of chaos and doom is perceived. With East and West in an eternal state of turmoil, it seems none has been able to emerge the victor. Each criticizes the other, yet both struggle with unique, but at the same time familiar problems, while a disconnect with humanity has eroded our being at a very fundamental level. Even as the works, through forbidding and gritty motifs, hint at literal violence, it seems it is these more abstract understandings of spiritual death and destruction that Rahman wishes to allude to.
These very dichotomous notions of Mashriq (East) and Maghrib (West) are united through the Urdu letter Meem (ﻡ), the beginning of both words, which is repeated and explored in various mediums, forms and styles throughout the works. This goes deeper than mere script, and seems to unite civilizations across time, excavating their origins to reveal one source from which springs all of mankind. The work “Shuru Yahan Se” (Beginning from Here) can also be interpreted as a depiction of the moment of conception on a cellular level, the interaction of the pomegranate and the meem within a circular void, acting as kind of a visual analogy.
With this idea in mind, even the use of the pomegranate, which the artist has previously used to symbolize the fruit of original sin which enticed and eventually condemned all of mankind, can also become a symbol of mankind’s doom here. The perfection of design and aesthetics that it encapsulates becomes an analogy, and its eventual decaying form further drives the fall from grace that mankind currently faces. On the other hand, the Urdu and Pushto scripts in some of the works, reference Rahman’s own origins and childhood, and seek to resolve personal narratives, addressing a dual identity and the complexities of the divides across ethnic and geographic lines.
In certain works the meem is transformed into a 3D motif, its spiky tail jutting out of the paintings as a hostile symbol. The spikes appear ordered, spiralling out in some of the works, while in others, such as the evocative, “Baatin-e-Aqs,” they take on a frenzied appearance like thorns, but in both cases they are meant to cause discomfort, and a sense of threat. The artist sees the rectangular form they take as a masculine symbol, while the circle is a feminine symbol to her. This is interesting, since in the work “Meem Mashriq, Meem Maghrib,” the circular red pomegranate seems to represent the East and the threatening black spikes, the West.
For all the differences between East and West, it is perhaps the inherent selfishness and entitlement that becomes the root cause of our current predicament. Titles like “Meem (?) = Main (Me)” seem to bring in this idea of the self being given preference, while faith in anything beyond disintegrates. While this notion is one of hopelessness and foreboding, the works have a certain sublime beauty bordering on spirituality, perhaps evoked by the circular forms and organic structures of nature, which cuts through the dark, gritty textures. Perhaps this beauty is meant to generate that faith and connection to something beyond the self, perhaps even to all of humanity through a contemplation of the meaning of life. There is a sense of calmness in works such as “Majma I (Crowd I)” and the Wahid (Oneness) series, for example, which counters the overall morbid themes and becomes the true strength of the work.
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