Written by: Nimra Khan
Posted on: July 12, 2018 | 
| 中文
I can see the stars
Abid Aslam’s latest solo show at Sanat Gallery titled, “Sitaron Se Aage” (Beyond the Stars) invokes the verse by Allama Iqbal, “Sitaron se aage jahan aur bhi hain” (There are other worlds beyond the stars). It fits particularly well with this series due to the departures Aslam has taken from his previous works, going beyond the obvious to explore endless possibilities in the vast universe of idea. Aslam moves away from his representationally rich imagery, and distills it into abstract form, to contemplate the fundamental essence of an image.
The artist’s initial works drew inspiration from Neo-Impressionism, with subdued pastel color palettes and banality as a subject matter, resituated within a local context. The artist’s technique — perforated wasli (a type of handmade paper) fitted with colored eyelets — mimics the pointillism of the impressionists, placing isolated colors side by side in complementary gradations to create impressions of a coherent image. Yet, similar comparisons can be drawn with the image construction techniques of the miniaturists. However, the introduction of modern industrial techniques and a variety of textures, seem to visualize these traditional vernaculars through a digitized format, mimicking the pixelated graphics of 80’s and 90’s arcade games. Therefore, the works also become a negotiation between conflicting aesthetics across time and cultures.
While most of these characteristics carry forth into the current works, the Neo-Impressionist imagery has slowly dissolved into a more Abstract Expressionist and Modernist sensibility. The re-imagination of Van Gogh in My Starry Night (2013) seems to inspire the Sitaron se Aage series, simplified into a study of the life of the moon over a fortnight. From here, the circular form of the moon is extracted and studied in Another Moon, which soon becomes the catalyst through which the image as an idea and an entity is deconstructed, untethered from what it represents and studied through its constituent elements. The artist explores the ways in which an image is built through layers, the placement of each dot and its relation to subsequent dots directing the perception of shapes, shades, gradations, perspective and distance.
Aslam’s practice previously focused heavily on borrowed imagery, and the ways in which historical images and paintings, or scenes from mundane life can be reinterpreted and contextualized. Who do these images then belong to and what meanings do they constitute? This body of work ponders on some of these questions, and self-reflects by eliminating referential imagery altogether. In As Far As One Can See (I) and (II), the density of the perforations creates variations in shades, which demarcate the most basic form of a landscape without actually creating one. Yet, the reflective surface of the gold and silver paper, ‘borrows’ the image of its surroundings and incorporates it into its narrative.
In works like the Dot into Dot series and Into the Greys, there is a study of composition and the elements of image-making. The ways in which the surface is treated requires one to move around, to get a clear sense of its varying depths. There are visual shifts, as one moves across the expansive length of the frames, dots appearing and disappearing, altering perceptions and images, raising questions about disparities in perceived realities and absolute facts. In the Units series, the visual is further simplified and even the recognizable shapes are dispelled, thus reducing the image to its most basic elements. The artist incorporates the oval format of the miniature painting, filtering out the imagery, to emphasize the color gradations in the background. The placement of the dots in primary colors appears at random, yet compels the eye to formulate an image that may or may not be there. The image reads as an elusive digital code for Mughal miniature, a blueprint for its elemental design, yet incoherent on surface level.
The current body of work is a depiction of the maturation of the artist’s practice, tracing a sound evolutionary trajectory, from his earliest representational landscapes all the way to the present conceptualized abstractions. Even within the confines of the show itself, one is able to identify the inspirations and points of departure that slowly reach new levels of depth and profundity, in the quest to understand the anatomy of an image.
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