Written by: Mahnoor Fatima
Posted on: March 15, 2021 | 
Untitled
Art enthusiasts in Islamabad have rejoiced at the re-launch and return of the Khaas Gallery space over the weekend as Khaas Contemporary. Khaas Gallery, which had been a staple in the city’s art scene, is once again ready to bring more thoughtful and innovative art exhibitions to the public.
Khaas Gallery was originally established in 1992 as ‘The Art Gallery’ by renowned artist Mobina Zuberi as one of Islamabad’s first contemporary art galleries. Current director Zishan Afzal Khan joined her in 1997 as a partner and officially took over after Zuberi’s departure in 2006.
Ball Gown
Like a phoenix from the ashes, Khaas Gallery has risen once more after a hiatus of five years, as Khaas Contemporary. Their new objective is to showcase more cutting-edge and experimental exhibitions using works by innovative and Avant-garde artists. Their first show after hiatus stands as a testament to this spirit, displaying the delicately detailed and heavily symbolic works of Bushra Waqas Khan.
Bushra Waqas Khan is an award-winning textile designer and a printmaker, whose relationship with the gallery goes back a long way was she first showcased her thesis at Khaas in 2008. With a degree in Fine Arts from NCA, Khan is primarily a printmaker but urrently her work focuses on incorporating her 3D printmaking techniques with textile arts. Her latest fascination is the incorporation and manipulation of state document symbols, which she calls Affidavits (an oath of truth) using her trademark technique of repetition. The result is a dazzling and dizzying collection of black and white gowns of varying styles, sizes and densities.
Details in the dress
Through her repetition and delicate yet purposeful use of state symbols, Khan’s work showcases the juxtaposition of powerful state motifs with the fragility often associated with women and femininity. Hidden in the details of the fluffy bows, heavy ruffles and pretty frills are motifs from documents that the average person takes for granted. These include money notes, prints of stamp paper, and even prints that closely resemble the fingerprints on legal documents. Common national motifs like the crescent and star merge alongside Islamic symbols like flowers and tendrils.
Lamellar and Details on Lamellar
These symbols belong to everyone, yet are powerful in their subtle hold over the people. This can speak for both the pervasiveness of state symbolism as well as the way women exercise power in their constrained circumstances. For instance, ‘Lamellar’ looks more like body armor than a dress, that’s purpose is not only to keep others at a distance but also to envelop the person wearing it. Upon closer inspection, the dress is made of rectangular shaped plates of silk folded four times to give the dress its prickliness. But Khan points out that these thorns are not to pierce, but to skim over. There is a smooth flow upwards in the dress, and one has to understand that before judging too harshly on its shape.
Hundred and Fifty Rupees and Details on Hundred and Fifty Rupees
What drives such symbolism in Khan’s work is the use of carefully executed symbolism. The use of repetition in the fabrics drives home the regularity and intensity with which these are weaved into the fabric of everyday life. In ‘Hundred and Fifty Rupees’, the grand 102-meter fabric took a painstaking 67 hours to make. While 150 rupees is considered a meager sum of money, its constant use amplifies the number’s value until it becomes an unthinkably large number, when used as fabric.
The Tree of Life
These designs were carefully digitally etched and reproduced, before being transferred to fine organza that closely resembles paper. The individual pieces were laser cut, reassembled and stitched around the edges by expert embroiderers to retain their distinct form.
As Zishan Afzal Khan rightly mentioned, her dresses define a 21st-century hybrid cultural existence through a marriage of Victorian, Islamic, Armorial and Pakistani symbols and design styles. It merges the past colonial legacies with the present struggle to achieve a national identity, the global fashion styles with the local popular fabrics. For instance, the hybrid Elizabethan and South Asian ‘Untitled’ is a combination of Jama fabric Mutton sleeves that comes together to make a flamboyant gown that looks Western but feels eastern. It is a fascinating contrast to the ‘Tree of Life’, which has a starkly modern silhouette, one that focuses on individual growth and shape, compared to the boisterous performance of the more historically-inspired gowns. This is perhaps a comment on how such state symbols and markers of identity from the past carry into the present sensibilities.
Khan’s affidavits speak her truth about national aesthetics, and she investigates the boundaries through a unique yet attentive lens. Using a blend of prints and fashion, her work questions identity, femininity, and stresses the hidden aspects of otherwise superficial performance. It compels the viewer to push past the initial beauty and shock of an art piece, to focus on the details and effort that stand behind it. The exhibition will continue till March 22nd at Khaas Gallery’s new premises. For more information, please see their website and social media for more details.
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