Written by: Nayha Jehangir Khan
Posted on: July 01, 2021 | 
Sar-e-Deewar (Facing the Wall)
Lahore has been home to the most prominent and pioneering artists of our time. It is a cultural playground that has nurtured and mentored generations of contemporary artists. But now, we are starting to see an emergence of a new kind of art gallery, one that is created by artists for artists.
ArtSoch Contemporary is Lahore’s most recent addition, opening its doors on MM Alam Road, one of the busiest commercial districts in the area. Their inaugural exhibition titled “Vision Weavers”, has twenty-six artists who are engaged in teaching and curation as well as creating their own artworks. ArtSoch Contemporary is a collaborative initiative of Mariam Hanif Khan, Somia Naveed and Shahwaiz Khan. These individuals are heavily invested in their artist community, and passionate about creating an open and inclusive platform that will promote emerging and mid-career artists.
The exhibition curated by Khan, explores the visual cross-connections and showcases a visual narrative that is shared between the artists. She has designed each section of the exhibition with the intent to highlight thematic ideas that are overlapping and complementing. The opening section of the exhibition has monochrome abstract compositions. Shaukat Ali Khokar’s large scale paintings have mesmerizing repetitive mark-making that becomes an optically fluid metallic surface caught in intense vibration. Even though Romessa Khan has the same pitch-black background, her rendering of the dot and line are completely different from Ali’s paintings. She uses the idea of frequency and repetition as a visual analogy interpreting sound as an image.
Poetics by Shaukat Ali Khokhar
Abid Aslam’s bejewelled triptych grips the viewer’s attention with its gilded surfaces in precise and meticulous detailing. His drawings feel welded and heavy, but on closer examination, the delicate mark-making technique is made from lightweight pieces of gold leaf. These almost-crocheted works are similar to miniature painting, as the visuals embedded into them are botanical, figurative and classical. The visual abstraction of form created in the drawings of Sundas Rafi shows her meditative and intuitive practice. She is completely immersed in the process of creating a space ungoverned by the laws of nature, using various techniques, from pen and ink to collage and geometry.
The Gap in Between by Sundas Rafi
Khan has gathered several artists who are currently exploring architectural motifs and spaces. Using the traditional architectural model making technique, the intricate works of Rida Fatima highlight the weathering of cultural and historical spaces. Similarly, Sana Durrani is immersed in the practice of restoration and conservation. The interior spaces that Durrani creates using a 3D collage and light box technique transport the viewer immediately. The purposeful use of exterior and interior spaces between passageways and doors create a visual tension in her work that has emotive qualities of abandonment and loneliness. Fatima spends time on intricate details like staining of the walls, the particular wood carving and brick formations that celebrate the rich cultural history that is recognizably from old Lahore.
The artists Warda Naeem Bukhari and Raza Ur Rehman use sculptural and cultural interventions that blur the boundaries between eastern and western symbolism. There are handcrafted jewellery pieces paired with amorphic shapes in Bukhari’s intimate works. The interpretation is open as various forms appear upon closer inspection. There are layers of frames in Rehman’s diptych transition, from modern maps to vintage Victorian frames. The intersections are modern as well as historical, the sculptural portrait could be Gandhara or Greek, inviting the viewer to come closer to study the details and clues.
Under the Lines I and II by Raza ur Rehman
Zahid Mayo’s painting practice is modern, muralistic and powerful, with large scale figurative works as well as contemporary lettering practice. His diptych titled “Meray Naang Noon Na Sharma,” confronts the viewer with their internalised shame and self-consciousness of the nude body that is a by-product of restrictive censorship and social conditioning. The figurative works of Javaid Iqbal Mughal also present a narrative that feels introspective and self-reflective. The diptych shows the side profile of a man in one painting, next to a painting of a seated male figure holding a sharp object. The unfinished quality of the works deliberately removes details to create suspense and dread, leaving the viewer feeling anxious for the seated figure.
Meray Naang Noon Na Sharma by Zahid Mayo
Using an anthropological perspective on documenting memory and experience, the works of Mina Haroon and Usman Khalid immortalise particular images that are frozen in time. Even though the technique used by Haroon is a sculptural imprint of jewellery sets pressed down on handmade paper, it has the same effect as Khalid’s gentle and subtle charcoal drawings of children’s toys. It is a collection of memories through time, with delicate details that feel fleeting and weightless to the eye. Khalid’s process of relaying the emotional value placed on children’s toys still embodies a sense of the inner child. Haroon uses handmade paper that appears to be concrete and heavy at first, because of the imprint and the weight of pushing down on the surface. These changing states of being are representational of our coming of age, transitioning from child to adult and highlight the mortality of the human condition.
As you walk down the length of the exhibition there are a host of artist works that include Ghulam Hussain, Ammar Faiz, Farrukh Adnan, Husain Jamil, Javeria Ahmed, Julius John Alam, Laraib Ahmed, Momina Muhammad, Muneeb Ali, Nazir Hunzai, Shuja Ulhaq, Ozma Bhatti, Zamania Aslam and Kawal Tariq. There is an extensive range of contemporary practices that explore relevant social issues, intimate relationships, the artistic and tactile manipulation of material and found objects. Traditional mediums are also present, such as painting, drawing, sculpture along with modern installation art, digital art and video. ArtSoch Contemporary has started its curatorial journey with an impressive collection of artists that are at the forefront of shaping the future of Pakistani art.
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