Written by: Nayha Jehangir Khan
Posted on: April16, 2021 | 
| 中文
Works on Display at Dominion Gallery
The thriving artist community of The Colony is currently housed on the second floor of an old shoe factory, reimagined by founders Saad Sheikh and Salman Jahangir into a loft styled warehouse. It is nestled near the hustle-bustle of the Pepsi Cola factory on Gurumangat Road, Lahore.
The creative mission of the art house is to provide artistic experiences across multiple disciplines from dance, film, music to visual art. Their latest exhibition “The Singer Not The Song” is being displayed by Dominion Gallery, which is part of The Colony and is headed by Bibi Arbab. It is a duo show showcasing 15 artworks by Hussain Jamil and Ammar Faiz. The guest curator, Salima Hashmi, wrote in her exhibition note about the role of artists in society. Keeping in mind today’s difficult post-pandemic life, she said, “They become our healers, the keepers of our secrets, our saviors.”
The Gallery Space
She invites viewers to interact, dream and process their feelings through entering into the world created by Jamil and Faiz. She goes on to say that “Two young artists with very different practices take it upon themselves to hold up mirrors to our anxieties - to intrigue, soothe and excite,” and indeed their work together is a spectrum of emotions experienced as we walk through the gallery space.
The industrial roof, warm spotlights and wooden floors are reflected in Jamil’s “Enigmatic self mirror”, which is an 8 feet triptych acting as a gilded gateway. As the viewer walks in front of the piece, their reflection is broken into hundreds of miniature reflections. The environment and the viewer are hyper-rearranged within seconds. Observing ourselves in a sea of kaleidoscopic visuals creates a flood of reflections where the viewer eventually completes the artwork.
'Enigmatic Self' by Hussain Jamil (Photo credits to the writer)
A wonderful moment is created between the viewer and the artwork, Jamil’s mirror discs are reminiscent of Anish Kapoor and Chuck Close, who pioneered abstraction through biomorphic forms. Jamil creates similar otherworldly portals governed by laws he has created. As a metal-smith, he carefully places pockets of distortion on mirror-polished gold-tint stainless-steel sheets, subtly fashioning a meticulously embedded codex of lines and form.
'In the Face of Mercy' by Hussain Jamil
There is a playful exploration of reflection, light and movement. These sculptural objects might be heavy in physical weight but encountering them is a fluid process. The gravity within these pieces is in flux; anything reflected at us is travelling at a different speed. The viewer catches their reflection over and over, moving through the exhibition space. The artworks, simultaneously reflecting a panoramic view with painterly strokes of light and shadow, follow the viewer. Jamil has used distortion as a drawing device in his mirrorscapes, creating a psychedelic optical illusion that is dizzying, exciting and immediate.
Faiz’s paper collage artworks can be interpreted in numerous ways. He has cut out thousands of pieces to create collages using colour, shape and line. These collage pieces are taken from magazines, depicting hints and fragments of landscape, portrait, architecture and text. Depending on which direction your eye travels across the large scale artwork called “Perfect Chaos”, one finds 16 panels tightly stacked together. The collage pieces are purposely folded to create another layer of light and dark tone, in which there is fluid wave-like movement. The viewer can create an infinite number of narratives connecting various bits and pieces of information seen in the collage, a new association each time.
The Details of 'A Bit More Order is Needed' by Ammar Faiz (Photo credits to the writer)
Faiz’s collection of perfectly punched-out circles is a laborious endeavor that becomes the foundation of his image-making practice. With his structured symmetrical pieces such as “She has her room in the Louvre Museum”, he invites the viewer into a dialogue on subjects like the definition of modern world painting.
There are hundreds of overlapping images that feel out of focus to the eye, creating a visual transmission of signals. He plays with photographic techniques, such as depth of field, colour theory and concept of chance to create numerous non-linear compositions framed to look like paintings. “When All the Books Were Gone”, is a photograph that shows stacks of magazine pages with punctured circles used to make the collage pieces. The colourful mosaics of Yayoi Kusama come to mind when gazing into the densely layered works of Faiz, as they too feel futuristic and mysterious.
'She has her room in the Louvre Museum' by Ammar Faiz
In a collaborative piece called “The Other Completes”, the artist duo has created a uniquely placed sphere folded at the centre and placed in the corner of the gallery. The overlap of the two halves, one collage and the other a mirror, create a complete circle inside the reflection. The two are working closely together to create interesting visual echoes using the geometry of the circle and rectangle.
There are two large halls where the artwork is being displayed. The second room had two large scale works by each artist hung side by side. creating a visual yin and yang. Faiz’s “The Great Wave” feels post-apocalyptic, as the tide could be a landfill or a destroyed construction site. Similarly, Jamil uses larger than life mirror tiles that have violent strokes of lines etched into their surface. There is a surge of emotions in these works: Faiz’s wave starts to accede, travelling from darkness to light, whereas Jamil’s octagons are void of colour or earthly representation. The exhibition takes us through the intimate smaller pieces by each artist, building up to these large scale works. The muralistic quality of these pieces, in particular, shows the commitment each artist has to their practice. The visual vocabulary they have created feels industrial, urban and geometric.
'The Other Completes' by Hussain Jamil and Ammar Faiz
Thematic similarities can be drawn when comparing the works of Jamil and Faiz to the long-standing art exploration of Rasheed Araeen that focused on structural elements, urban decay, colonialism and re-contextualizing the iconography of identity politics. The duality of the exhibition between paper and metal, fluid and solid, reflection and inversion are all thematic metaphors that deeply explore the complexities of self. The exhibition will continue throughout the month of Ramzan, and will be open from 1 pm to 6 pm for public viewing.
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