Written by: Nimra Khan
Posted on: October 05, 2023 | 
| 中文
(L to R) Topaanga and Zer Yak Asmaan (Beneath the Same Sky)
A recent show at Koel Gallery celebrates 30 years of Studio Lel with an exhibition featuring works by its artistic director Meherunnisa Asad, which lie at the intersection of art and craft, and are a confluence of techniques, mediums, ideas, cultures, regions, peoples and experiences. Meherunnisa responds to her mother’s love for stone and the splendor of nature, contemplating its socio-political underpinnings within the anatomy of conflict. In this show curated by eminent art critic Amra Ali, we don’t just see the beauty in finesse, but also the raw, rugged beginnings, the perilous journey, and a peak behind and inside the creative minds that need to work in tandem, much like the contrasting materials and colors that work in unison to elevate each design.
Farhana Asad and Meherunnisa Asad
Lel was founded by Peshawer-based Farhana Asad to sustain traditional craft techniques through a collaborative practice with local artisans, which include displaced persons from conflict ridden areas of Afghanistan. Indigenous craft techniques are revived, revitalized, and preserved, blossoming from a passion to recreate nature in stone by hand, a single blood red Hibiscus from her garden. “Nature is at the heart of everything I do- from my design aesthetic to the use of natural stone and in the way I embrace of all its flaws, challenges, and glory in my work,” she says, “The rough, rugged pieces, hiding unparalleled beauty. Stone is forever unpredictable and full of surprises- the inside of each tiny pebble and each giant boulder holds something unexpected.”
Shroom I
In her curatorial essay, Amra Ali charts how Farhana’s obsession led her to the local mandis (wholesale markets) and karkhanas (small scale artisanal workshops) in search of artisans who would teach her the craft. Farhana says, “I have always had a curious mind constantly seeking ideas and inspiration from all corners of the globe. I couldn´t travel to all of these wonderful places, so I combined elements of the most fascinating techniques, like the Chinese Cloisonne, Japanese /Kintsugi and Italian Pietra Dura to create and build my own.”
Meherunnisa now further evolves these techniques, pushing their boundaries into the realm of art, blurring the line that separates the two. This sits comfortably with Koel Gallery’s mandate to provide an equal platform for both arts and crafts to flourish and soften the hard lines drawn between art and crafts by colonial rulers in an attempt to assert their own cultural dominance. Meherunnisa situates the iconography of the garden through her subjective lens, having grown up in a region with a proximity to conflict in the form of the War in Afghanistan, which created an influx of refugees into Northern Pakistan, displaced from their home country.
This proximity recontextualizes the image of the garden the artist found in her mother’s old, abandoned pieces. “Having lived through the years of conflict in northern Pakistan taught me that the human soul leans upon nature, even in the most limiting of times and the harshest circumstances to find solace. This interest in depicting a unique and often unnoticed consequence of conflict and displacement has culminated in a series of works titled ‘War Gardens’,” says Meherunnisa. The series borrows its title from a book by Lalage Snow, which Ali references throughout her essay and its excerpts in the gallery wall text, describing how the author, who is a photographer, talks about isolated instances of this strangely collective propensity of the human psyche, and documents moving stories of gardens in places of turmoil such as Kabul (2012), Gaza (2013), Israel Kibbutzim (2013), Helmand (2014), The West Bank (2016) and so on. “Lalage documents the restoration of emperor Babur’s gardens that were uprooted during the civil war in Kabul which followed Soviet departure. These gardens were later restored through studying the garden descriptions in the Baburnama…” writes Ali.
Lotus I
Lel’s garden, as Ali refers to it in her essay, in a way parallels these war gardens, tended and grown through a collaboration with the very survivors of this war trodden region – the displaced master artisans from Afghanistan – their flowers crafted from natural stone excavated from the earth, cut and inlayed by hand. “It is through this series that I attempt to bridge the collective´s past with the present and its ethos of collaborating with displaced master artisans under a larger theme that revolves around nature and its resilience in finding ways to grow in harsh conditions,” says Meherunnisa. This collaboration is integral to the concept of War Gardens, and thus shines through the curatorial decision to display the sound works, videos, as well as glass case displays of process journals, drawings, and assorted paraphernalia, which give an insight into the modes of communication between artist and artisans, their creative synchronization and the respect shared between both.
In Lel’s garden, nature becomes both subject and medium, presenting its complex beauty and resilience as a metaphor for those affected by war, while simultaneously becoming a means of seeking solace in times of turmoil. Perhaps the meditative act of gardening harkens a sense of regrowth and resilience in times of hopeless despair, the act of nurturing easing the pain of the destruction being witnessed.
Beyond the makers, there is also the collaboration of cultures and regions through the blend of techniques originating from different places carrying their influence, and the materials sourced from different geographical locations. The similar notes between practices separated by distance and time are acknowledged as they are merged, such as Florentine pietra dura and the Mughal parchin kari, combined with other decorative techniques such as Lapidary (engraving and cutting of gems), Sculpting, Scagliola (plaster-pouring), Cloisonné (enameling), Verre Églomisé (glass etching), Copper/Brass making and Woodworking.
Flight
The artist further states, “I also draw from the genre of composite painting in Indian and Persian art and marry this with the overindulgent Mughal stone inlay tradition of incorporating real gemstones such as rubies, emeralds, and peridots. An array of semi-precious stones and colored marble are sourced from the mountains of Pakistan, whereas Lapis Lazuli from further afield in Afghanistan and Malachite from South Africa. This complex layering of a world upon a world, a garden within a garden, is for me an expression that is reminiscent of the historical heart of Peshawar.”
What all of this translates to is pieces that are beautifully complex and endlessly intricate, a convergence of techniques and materials that sit at the precipice of art and craft, form and function, suspended in between, at once both and neither. Flaura and fauna combine in unique compositions, breaking free of surfaces they are anchored to, executed in an array of precious and semi-precious stones, cut and assembled in a mosaic of hues and shades that offer a visual depth beyond measure.
The large installation in the first room, along with the videos and glass cases allows for us to appreciate the process, the rawness of the material almost mimicking the terrain it is sourced from, a butterfly work in progress poised delicately atop slate slabs overlooking a grey landscape. Works like “Zer Yak Asmaan” (Beneath The Same Sky), executed in Serpentine, Marble, Plaster, Copper and Metal, with Pietra Dura, Scagliola, Cloisonné and Copperwork techniques stand out in its scale and visual complexity. The panther and the eagle are executed in the Mughal style of composite painting, the silhouette of their forms adorned with imagery of flowers and butterflies, carrying worlds within them. A similar style can be seen in works like “Two Macaws”. The title suggests a critique of the hierarchies within nature and perhaps an oblique commentary on manmade hierarchies that result in oppressive behaviors and practices.
Two Macaws
Other works of note are “Panther Head” done in the traditional Pietra Dura style with Tourmaline, Lapis Lazuli, Serpentine, Calcite, Marble, Copper, Metal, Cloisonné, Copperwork over a stone slab, its Peridot eyes particularly striking. The “Topaanga” side table and bench present an act of violence transformed into a chaotic beauty. “Flight”, executed in Malachite, Lapis Lazuli, Serpentine, Jade, Onyx, Amazonite, Riverstone, Marble, Plaster, Copper and Metal, in Pietra Dura, Scagliola and Cloisonné, with exquisite detailing and a sense of looseness and movement communicated through such hardened and rigid materials as the birds break free of the composition.
Panther Head
“Together, Apart” is another largescale work, done in Malachite, Lapis Lazuli, Serpentine, Jade, Onyx, Amazonite, Marble, Plaster, Resin, Metal, Preserved Flowers and Leaves with Pietra Dura, Scagliola, Cloisonné, compelling the viewer to circle around. The fluctuating scale of its detailing creates an interesting surface, with again a sense of flowing movement in its composition, with a sense of almost being frozen in the process of being washed away.
Together, Apart
Having given Lel a platform for its first exhibition a decade ago, with this exhibition Koel brings it full circle. What began as a personal passion became a quest to preserve indigenous crafts, and now has been pushed beyond, establishing its relevance within a contemporary idiom and cementing its place in times to come.
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