As an art student at NCA and later on as well, my work has been hugely criticized for its ephemeral and non-sellable nature. I was told, if I think of Art as a profession for myself, but engage in work/jobs other than art-making to support my practice and myself, then I shall consider Art a hobby instead. I use to think, if making money was a concern, then I wouldn’t have made this choice. Also, being an old fashioned woman, the idea of the starving, struggling, unrecognized artist is so gloriously compelling to me :p and almost a prerequisite of course that I didn’t pay much attention to the business-minded and just nodded away. but Saira Ansari doesn’t!
Her recent show at Grey Noise, entitled 'the work that will probably never end', asks, tough important questions about the intricacies of making, showing, framing and selling of Art. “She feels there is a contrived idea of what art and creativity should be and many artists find themselves adhering to these commercially viable stereotypes. Ansari uses this project as a platform to question the ethics of these politics and the mercenary attitude of the galleries in Pakistan, which she believes, behave more like shops and less as promoters of art and creativity” (project description from the email invite).
Artistic activity in part is a response to the invitation to ‘produce’. Subjected to the pressures of the market, most artists tend to make compromises with the medium, form, and content of their work, producing commodities rather than art objects. Or is it a coincidence that most (read all) of the contemporary Pakistani art is in the tradition of miniature art practice with veiled female bodies in confined claustrophobic spaces, depiction of bearded men with guns and fanciful arabesque patterns? Such artists are in one way or the other conforming to the demands of the market through making works that have started looking alike with very little variations. There certainly is a need for a critical inspection of developments in the politics of representation and the role of artists, curators and galleries in this demonstration. In that context Ansari’s contribution to the activity of ‘production’ is an absence of objects. She has decided to mail empty boxes/cartons of varying sizes to almost all art galleries in Pakistan as a polite declaration of her ‘objection’. The box is only a premise for the non-existence of the work, its emptiness refers to ‘absence’ as an evidence of the inability of (her) art expression to have meaningful existence under present conditions. This recalcitrance in the face of art authorities is begging for artistic autonomy from the institutions that attempt to frame it according to their needs. “The idea is to poke them”, says Ansari (during a public talk at the opening of the exhibition).
In order of priority, Ansari’s work is concerned with the critical discourse rather than formal issues, hence I am not going to talk about the aesthetics/quality of the works exhibited, although I do feel that, in trying to fill this gap between thought and its execution, Ansari has filled the gallery with an overwhelming amount of notes, sketches, text and boxes, which certainly needs much editing.
A similar reaction to the commodification of art, was seen during the conceptual art movement in the late 60s and early 70s in the West, that critically subverted the gallery as the location, determiner, owner and distributor of art. The movement has had a tremendous influence on artists’ publications that substantially helped to facilitate this connection between authorship and authority. Ansari’s work punctuated with question marks (both literally and metaphorically) remains within the realm of criticism, which due to a lack of critical writing have remained unanswered. A turn towards theoretical issues will certainly help answer some very important questions, but what Ansari’s public talk (however brief) at the exhibition did, her work did not do, she might want to re-consider the relation between content and its execution.
It is probably too early in the life of this project to pass any judgments, as the name suggests, this project will carry on for the rest of Ansari’s life and she will continue to engage with upcoming shows by other artists at Grey Noise. It will be interesting to see the shape it takes during the course and the responses it will generate from the curators and other artists, as the nature of the project hugely relies on its reception. If lucky, what we might see after this is the beginning of the formation of friends and foes. Hopefully, people with common interests will begin to form alliances in order to examine the purpose of making art and to interrogate the nature of cultural production, starting a dialogue in the best interest of the given conditions of art, for a much needed revolution.
Ansari's will be online soon after the opening and photographs, videos, discussions and commentary can be accessed at www.thesaproject.wordpress.com.
Her recent show at Grey Noise, entitled 'the work that will probably never end', asks, tough important questions about the intricacies of making, showing, framing and selling of Art. “She feels there is a contrived idea of what art and creativity should be and many artists find themselves adhering to these commercially viable stereotypes. Ansari uses this project as a platform to question the ethics of these politics and the mercenary attitude of the galleries in Pakistan, which she believes, behave more like shops and less as promoters of art and creativity” (project description from the email invite).
Artistic activity in part is a response to the invitation to ‘produce’. Subjected to the pressures of the market, most artists tend to make compromises with the medium, form, and content of their work, producing commodities rather than art objects. Or is it a coincidence that most (read all) of the contemporary Pakistani art is in the tradition of miniature art practice with veiled female bodies in confined claustrophobic spaces, depiction of bearded men with guns and fanciful arabesque patterns? Such artists are in one way or the other conforming to the demands of the market through making works that have started looking alike with very little variations. There certainly is a need for a critical inspection of developments in the politics of representation and the role of artists, curators and galleries in this demonstration. In that context Ansari’s contribution to the activity of ‘production’ is an absence of objects. She has decided to mail empty boxes/cartons of varying sizes to almost all art galleries in Pakistan as a polite declaration of her ‘objection’. The box is only a premise for the non-existence of the work, its emptiness refers to ‘absence’ as an evidence of the inability of (her) art expression to have meaningful existence under present conditions. This recalcitrance in the face of art authorities is begging for artistic autonomy from the institutions that attempt to frame it according to their needs. “The idea is to poke them”, says Ansari (during a public talk at the opening of the exhibition).
In order of priority, Ansari’s work is concerned with the critical discourse rather than formal issues, hence I am not going to talk about the aesthetics/quality of the works exhibited, although I do feel that, in trying to fill this gap between thought and its execution, Ansari has filled the gallery with an overwhelming amount of notes, sketches, text and boxes, which certainly needs much editing.
A similar reaction to the commodification of art, was seen during the conceptual art movement in the late 60s and early 70s in the West, that critically subverted the gallery as the location, determiner, owner and distributor of art. The movement has had a tremendous influence on artists’ publications that substantially helped to facilitate this connection between authorship and authority. Ansari’s work punctuated with question marks (both literally and metaphorically) remains within the realm of criticism, which due to a lack of critical writing have remained unanswered. A turn towards theoretical issues will certainly help answer some very important questions, but what Ansari’s public talk (however brief) at the exhibition did, her work did not do, she might want to re-consider the relation between content and its execution.
It is probably too early in the life of this project to pass any judgments, as the name suggests, this project will carry on for the rest of Ansari’s life and she will continue to engage with upcoming shows by other artists at Grey Noise. It will be interesting to see the shape it takes during the course and the responses it will generate from the curators and other artists, as the nature of the project hugely relies on its reception. If lucky, what we might see after this is the beginning of the formation of friends and foes. Hopefully, people with common interests will begin to form alliances in order to examine the purpose of making art and to interrogate the nature of cultural production, starting a dialogue in the best interest of the given conditions of art, for a much needed revolution.
Ansari's will be online soon after the opening and photographs, videos, discussions and commentary can be accessed at www.thesaproject.wordpress.com.
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