TRUTH ABOUT PERCEPTION:

“...though we cannot know these objects as things in themselves, we must yet be in a position at least to think them as things in themselves; otherwise we should be landed in the absurd conclusion that there can be appearance without anything that appears.”

—   Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason.

Our relationship with both physical and abstract phenomena, the ‘existence of nature’ in contrast with ‘the perception of this existence’, has been a subject of inquiry for philosophers and artists alike. Without going on a wild goose chase regarding such questions, in my humble opinion, beyond perception most concepts do not even matter, that is to say, there is no relationship between objective and subjective reality, since all reality is subjective by definition and vice versa. And that is where the essence of Art lies, as Ayn Rand writes (explaining her philosophy of Objectivism in the context of Art), “as a selective re-creation of reality according to an artist's metaphysical value-judgments". This re-shaping of non-empirical ideas into physical form is the curatorial foundation of SCORE, exhibiting works by Ehsan Ul Haque, Imran Ahmed, Iqra Tanveer and Sajjad Ahmed, at Drawing Room Art Gallery, Lahore, from October 12 – 22, 2011.

In a country like ours, each one of us is so busy wheel-running like laboratory rats, expending so much effort on issues of political instability, shortage of electricity, gas and petrol, extremism, terrorism, e.t.c, that even the Art exhibitions barely get a chance to look beyond the rim of the wheel - such an exhibition then, is a moment of relief. But that does not imply that the work is not political in nature, how can it not be when society itself is the physical aspect of the world we inhabit. 

Ehasan ul Haque, Physical Existence of Belief.

Ehasan ul Haque’s Physical Existence of Belief, a 4’ x 4’, concrete cube, is a kaaba of personal realities or perhaps the monolithic power of the authorities. It defines man's nature and the nature of the world in which he lives, recalling the old axiom, if we truly believe a lie it might as well be the truth for the impact it has. The construction of beliefs that rests in the realm of non-physical is made into a physical object in concrete, a medium that is not simply experienced phenomenologically but is associated with social references, particularly of ruins and construction sites.

Imran Ahmad, Hypothalamus

Naan (flat breads) is the medium and the subject of Imran Ahmad’s Hypothalamus: region of brain controlling hunger, thirst and body temp, addressing the physiological needs for human survival. These 11 or 12 kinds of naans, that are made from different ingredients, instantly bring to my mind the image of a menu card of any restaurant, a list accompanied by their prices and it makes one wonder about needs measured against luxuries. The piece (to me) is a bit nervous or unconvincing, so to speak. This literal translation takes a rather bland approach towards parody, perhaps just a little bit of irony could have made these naans extraordinary instead.

Sajjad Ahmed, Play Field.         Iqra Tanveer, Paradise of Paradox 

 Where as, the formal aspects of Iqra Tanveer and Sajjad Ahmed’s work require experiencing the physicality of these works in person. Ahmed’s Play Field, a digitally manipulated print of a football field, despite being a 2-dimensional image, appears to be a 3-dimensional illusion and creates (if only for an instant) a kind of a doubt/uncertainity about our knowledge about things (our understanding of geometry) and the existential facts of objects. Tanveer on the other hand, addresses the nature of perception, representation, space, materiality and absence through a play of light and dust. Paradise of Paradox, is a darkened space created within the gallery, testing the truth about perception. It is a niche, which omits light from the thin slits on both sides, and beyond that is placed a blower that blows dust into the air every few minutes. This transformation of air and light into physical matter, demands a hypersensitive looking, feeling, listening, smelling and knowing. This creates, if only for a few minutes, a thin film of dust particles with the use of light, that appears so tangible that one is compelled to poke his/her finger, hand or head through it, creating that doubt about seeing, knowing and experiencing. Though the piece is not without its shortcomings, particularly in terms of its carpentry, because of which instead of creating this illusion of a film of dust edge to edge, it was only visible in a small portion, but each one of her audiences had their moment of awe.

“the autobiographical enacts the self that it claims has given rise to an ‘I’ and that ‘I’ is neither unified nor stable – it is fragmented, provisional, multiple and continuously in process”. (Interfaces: Women, Autobiography, Image, Performance,pg 9).

i ≠ i is the title of a group show that opened on 14^th October, 2011 at Nairang gallery. The exhibition is a product of a 2 week workshop with final year (BFA and MA) students at Beaconhouse National University, conducted by Kathrin Becker, who is a curator and art historian from Berlin. As the title of the show suggests, the 19 artists in this show indulge themselves in authoring, narrating and acting the ‘self’, investigating the subject of embodiment and the embodiment of subjectivity, interrogating the subjective dimension of ‘being’ and examining the dislocation and fragmentation of that ‘being’. Though, autobiographical self-representation has throughout history been the subject of art but this autobiography, while expanding modes of self representation through a process of self-knowledge and self-telling, reveals the conception of the ‘self’ as an imaginary construct, “fragmented, provisional, multiple and continuously in process”.

                   Demonstrating the permeability of the self’s physical and symbolic boundaries, the works in the show, reflect on memory, negotiate the past, engage aspects of gendered selves, lived experiences, popular culture and critique socio-political and cultural constructs/narratives, all of which co-exists in the same space. Mirza Ruknuddin Ahmad's I love Art, is a site of conflicting social definitions and a ground for examining the constructed and mediated roles. Hanifa Alizada, redefines her gendered Afghani (war-torned) identity with a fine balance of humor in Who we are? Rabia Anwar’s Split, in an investigation of similarities and differences between her mother and herself as brides, becomes the articulation of female subjectivity. Zeb Bilal’s I am the ‘Other’, traces the history of hybrid identities exemplified in dresses of the colonizers and the colonized. Similarly Sadaf Chughtai in Three views of Lahore Fort, traces the history of modernity and progress, the final image is a hybrid of old and new Lahore exemplified in the architecture of her Fort. Umair Iqbal’s representation of identity is also associated to a city and culture but to something more tangible, perhaps ‘only’ tangible. Lying somewhere between rebellion and submission, Raiha tul Jannah’s works address issues of her gendered identity, difference and the politics of representation. Among the participants also, are; Sofia Shahi, Shimul Saha, Anees-ur-Rehman, Shumaila Noor, Saima Noor, Ahmed Faizan, Maimoona, Eliza Khosa. It is practically impossible to discuss all the works here, so i shall briefly present some of them, all of which approach the issue of identity from divergent perspectives.

Rabia Anwar, Split (2011),                 Saima Noor, Untitled (2011),

digital print on photographic                 salt prints on paper

paper.

                                                     

Sadaf Chughtai, Three views of Lahore Fort (2011), digital Print (archival ink on cotton paper)

Saleem Abbas’s Identify??? is a short video, in which Abbas, who is easily identifiable because of his long black hair, has used himself as a site and a metaphor for the representation of the self. The screen, split into two, shows Abbas, from the front and back view on either side, combing his long dark hair, wearing a pair of jeans and no shirt. Diminishing the distinction between front and back by covering his face with hair and wearing the pants and the belt inversely, Abbas confuses his audience, even if only for a few seconds, and makes them ponder over the process of identification. 

Komal Naz, Untitled (2011), video, 2:50 min.

Similar in aesthetics, is Komal Naz’s presence in her almost 3 minutes long untitled video. Confined in a close frame is a wooden stool laying on its side that Naz, tries to fit into. While Naz struggles with this seemingly meaningless task, illustrating an existential crisis, one waits for nothing to happen, as if stuck in motion for time immemorial, which could be further highlighted if the video didn’t fade into black every time before restarting, it could easily do without marking the starting and the ending especially when there was no starting and ending and could have worked better in using it as a metaphor for the space which the mind occupies. Nevertheless, this video was one of the most engaging pieces in the show.

Zaib Haider, Untitled (2011), digital prints on photographic paper

Use of family snapshots open reservoirs of memories, but it’s certainly the objects and not the people in those photos that Zaib Haider is after; household details, toys, shoes, bags, e.t.c, fraught with meaning, besieged by domesticity, drained of life as mundane objects, a very important feature of family albums. Haider intends to appropriate, disturb and manipulate images that look simple, naive and sacred, resulting in distortion, disorder and disintegration by highlighting certain details while blurring the others.

Amber Hammad, Hum KEH Thehray Ajnabi (2011), digital Print on canvas (edition 2/3)

Amber Hammad, unlike others is not directly the subject of her work. Her digitally manipulated, Hum keh Thehray Ajnabi is an image made with photographs of bazaars from both Lahore and Delhi. The uncanny resemblance between the sister-cities is further highlighted by baring the image off any cultural references to bodily differences and reducing the people to black silhouettes. Pointing out the similarities more than the differences between the two, Hum keh Thehray Ajnabi while negotiating between self and other is a comment on close familial ties, shared histories, displacement, nostalgia and unfriendly relations, calling into question the true status of seemingly fixed categories of identity and our reliance on socially, politically and culturally assigned identities.

These artists challenging the notions of prescribed identities, however superficially, have at least begun to analyze the reality of their own fiction. Also, its a good drill for people who will be putting together their degree shows in only a few months.

i ≠ i

is the title of a group show that opened on 14^th October, 2011 at Nairang gallery. The exhibition is a product of a 2 week workshop with final year (BFA and MA) students at Beaconhouse National University, conducted by Kathrin Becker, who is a curator and art historian from Berlin. As the title of the show suggests, the 19 artists in this show indulge themselves in authoring, narrating and acting the ‘self’, investigating the subject of embodiment and the embodiment of subjectivity, interrogating the subjective dimension of ‘being’ and examining the dislocation and fragmentation of that ‘being’. Though, autobiographical self-representation has throughout history been the subject of art but this autobiography, while expanding modes of self representation through a process of self-knowledge and self-telling, reveals the conception of the ‘self’ as an imaginary construct, “fragmented, provisional, multiple and continuously in process”.

“the autobiographical enacts the self that it claims has given rise to an ‘I’ and that ‘I’ is neither unified nor stable – it is fragmented, provisional, multiple and continuously in process”. (Interfaces: Women, Autobiography, Image, Performance,pg 9).

            Demonstrating the permeability of the self’s physical and symbolic boundaries, the works in the show, reflect on memory, negotiate the past, engage aspects of gendered selves, lived experiences, popular culture and critique socio-political and cultural constructs/narratives, all of which is co-existing in the same space. Mirza Ruknuddi Ahmad’s I love Art, is a site of conflicting social definitions and a ground for examining the constructed and mediated roles. Hanifa Alizada, redefines her gendered Afghani (war-torned) identity with a fine balance of humor in Who we are? Rabia Anwar’s Split, in an investigation of similarities and differences between her mother and herself as brides, becomes the articulation of female subjectivity. Zeb Bilal’s I am the ‘Other’, traces the history of hybrid identities exemplified in dresses of the colonizers and the colonized. Similarly Sadaf Chughtai in Three views of Lahore Fort, traces the history of modernity and progress, the final image is a hybrid of old and new Lahore exemplified in the architecture of her Fort. Umair Iqbal’s representation of identity is also associated to a city and culture but to something more tangible, perhaps ‘only’ tangible. Lying somewhere between rebellion and submission, Raiha tul Jannah’s works address issues of her gendered identity, difference and the politics of representation. Among the participants also, are; Sofia Shahi, Shimul Saha, Anees-ur-Rehman, Shumaila Noor, Saima Noor, Ahmed Faizan, Maimoona, Eliza Khosa. It is practically impossible to discuss all the works here, so i shall briefly present some of them, all of which approach the issue of identity from divergent perspectives.

            Saleem Abbas’s Identify??? is a short video, in which Abbas, who is easily identifiable because of his long black hair, has used himself as a site and a metaphor for the representation of the self. The screen, split into two, shows Abbas, from the front and back view on either side, combing his long dark hair, wearing a pair of jeans and no shirt. Diminishing the distinction between front and back by covering his face with hair and wearing the pants and the belt inversely, Abbas confuses his audience, even if only for a few seconds, and makes them ponder over the process of identification.

                                                                                          Similar in aesthetics, is Komal Naz’s presence in her almost 3 minutes long untitled video. Confined in a close frame is a wooden stool laying on its side that Naz, tries to fit into. While Naz struggles with this seemingly meaningless task, illustrating an existential crisis, one waits for nothing to happen, as if stuck in motion for time immemorial, which could be further highlighted if the video didn’t fade into black every time before restarting, it could easily do without marking the starting and the ending especially when there was no starting and ending and could have worked better in using it as a metaphor for the space which the mind occupies. Nevertheless, this video was one of the most engaging pieces in the show.

                                                                                          Use of family snapshots open reservoirs of memories, but it’s certainly the objects and not the people in those photos that Zaib Haider is after; household details, toys, shoes, bags, e.t.c, fraught with meaning, besieged by domesticity, drained of life as mundane objects, a very important feature of family albums. Haider intends to appropriate, disturb and manipulate images that look simple, naive and sacred, resulting in distortion, disorder and disintegration by highlighting certain details while blurring the others.

            Amber Hammad, unlike others is not directly the subject of her work. Her digitally manipulated, Hum keh Thehray Ajnabi is an image made with photographs of bazaars from both Lahore and Delhi. The uncanny resemblance between the sister-cities is further highlighted by baring the image off any cultural references to bodily differences and reducing the people to black silhouettes. Pointing out the similarities more than the differences between the two, Hum keh Thehray Ajnabi while negotiating between self and other is a comment on close familial ties, shared histories, displacement, nostalgia and unfriendly relations, calling into question the true status of seemingly fixed categories of identity and our reliance on socially, politically and culturally assigned identities.

            These artists challenging the notions of prescribed identities, however superficially, have at least begun to analyze the reality of their own fiction. Also, its a good drill for people who will be putting together their degree shows in only a few months.