Links
Home-Page’ - Telling the story of the unknown and overlooked side,Daily Times 2010
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010%5C09%5C27%5Cstory_27-9-2010_pg7_2
KARACHI: Marium Agha and Seher Naveed from Pakistan, Manali Shroff from India, Ivy Hon Mei Chan from China and Jo Ying Peng from Taiwan are the five artists whose works transform into a visual language, and a series of attractive representations come about through a conversation about home.
‘Home-Page’ writes to eliminate race, political affiliations and borders; it writes to alert the public about abuses occurring beyond the news headlines.
It tells the story of the other side - a side often unknown, ignored, overlooked or disregarded.
This exhibition aims to show what goes beyond the media culture and the subjects that make the world and its people alike.
Agha and Naveed received their Bachelor of Arts degree from the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, while Shroff, Chan and Peng received theirs from the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda, the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Tamkang University in Taipei respectively.
All the artists received their Master of Arts degree from the Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design of London.
Agha’s works explore the process of seeing an object, doing which one develops a relationship with the object based on one’s interpretation.
She challenges predefined interpretations through her works by allowing the viewers to have a relationship with an object without tainting their experience of seeing it in any other context or framework.
Her work style is derived from her home and society, the failed democratic government, the Muslims’ apathy and the conflicts within oneself.
Naveed’s work develops with her awareness of physically living in one urban space and virtually being part of another. She came to London with a keen interest in the cityscape and has since been working with subject matters that involve urban landscape and social politics for reasons she is still not fully aware of.
Perhaps it is this void that lies between visual imagery and reason that makes her increasingly curious of the workings of the urban landscape.
She is curious with the fascination of the everyday life, how media interprets, the constructions that interrupt our daily movement and her fascination with ‘living in a window punctuated world’.
Shroff’s paintings are suffused with the surrealism of the everyday life and she often draws on visions and eccentric encounters in her mundane life that thrive in strange juxtapositions of humans and animals.
The mysterious animals with their human eyes have very illusive but essentially benign presence.
Though for all its strangeness and for all its dreamlike quality of its representation, in her paintings is a world rooted in reality.
Her paintings are a window into her unexplained world that is at once recognisable, yet bizarre.
The unrealistic nature of this relationship creates an enticing predicament, leaving the viewers to question the situation, and it would not be wrong to call her paintings ‘urban folktales’.
Chan’s works deal with the transformation and reconfiguration of quotidian objects.
By showing familiar things in unfamiliar ways, not only the characteristics of materials but the cultural and symbolic meanings are also challenged and transformed.
Thus, viewers are brought into an unprecedented realm to experience these everyday objects again.
Peng is practicing primarily in video and photography and she has worked extensively with the theme found in ‘The Screen Project’ that explores the relation between the real and the representation. She has been the concept of few recent exhibitions, and her works multiply the different layers of symbolic boundaries.
‘Home-Page’ includes Agha’s ‘72 Virgins for my suicide lover’; Naveed’s ‘Time pieces’; Shroff’s ‘I go east, you go west, let’s lead the rest’, ‘Hark, hark the dogs do bite... utopian fantasies of Dominique clerk’ and ‘And the world calls us Colonial Cousins’; Chan’s ‘Tiny Oceans’; and Peng’s ‘Between Arrival & Departure’.
'No Honour In Killing',Shahid Hussain,The News International, 2010
http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=19089&Cat=4
“Body Language” by Simeen Farhat, “Obedient” by Reeta Saeed, “Na Koela Bhai na Rakh” by Riffat Alvi and “72 virgins for my suicide lover” by Marium Agha dominated the group exhibition featuring 35 artists titled “No Honour In Killing.” The opening show was held on Monday at the VM Art Gallery.
“The artists have dedicated these paintings to the victims of Naseerabad killings,” said Nilofur Farrukh, the curator of the show. “The exhibition shows different dimensions of discrimination against women. It’s a catalyst of social change. As a curator I am exploring art and dialogue for social change,” she said while talking to The News. Farrukh said that honour killing is an action that is a form of solidarity with people who bore the brunt of pre-Islamic honour code.
“As many as 35 artists are looking at different dimensions. It’s a myth that the people in rural areas cannot relate to art. I think they relate to visuals and provoking them is important. From all over Pakistan, we have received art pieces and everybody’s voice is here,” she said emphatically.
The exhibition is dedicated to five women who were buried alive in the name of honour in Naseerabad district of Balochistan. Perhaps the most surprising in this case was the impenetrable silence over the denial of access to the murder site and the prevention of an early investigation. The crime was eventually reported by the Asian Human Rights Commission and credit goes to a proactive media which doggedly pursued the case till an investigation was started by the government. After a lapse of several months, when the bodies were exhumed from the shallow graves, they revealed signs of violence but the fact that there is little evidence left and virtually no witnesses are willing to come forward has prevented the course of justice.
“All we have learnt from news reports is that this crime took place because the girls wanted to marry partners of their own choice and their mothers were supporting them. When a taxi driver who was engaged to drive them out of the village reported them to the Umrani tribe, their brutal murder was ordered and carried out to reinforce control over the tribe, particularly womenfolk. It was shameful that some parliamentarians even defended their right to kill women in the name of honour on the assembly floor,” writes Farrukh in a book entitled “No Honour in Killing-Making Visible Buried Truth.”
“As a curator I wanted to push the boundaries of art as a catalyst for social change with its ability to communicate at a subliminal level. All the 35 artists in the show collectively make a powerful statement against gender violence and the multiple dimensions, from direct narratives to complex symbolism, offer accessibility to a wide audience from the un-initiated in small towns to sophisticated urbanites. Above all, the works ask questions, compelling the viewer to introspect on a serious issue that threatens half the population of Pakistan,” she adds.
Paintings at the exhibition included “Mukhtaran Mai,” a digital print in oil by Sana Arjumand; an untitled painting in fabric and pigment by Akram Dost Baloch; “We won’t kill you” by Simeen Farhat; “Body language,” a very impressive painting in archival print by Simeen Farhat; an untitled painting in archival print by Simeen Farhat; “Honour” in oil on canvas by Khuda Bux Abro; “Mourning” in mixed media by Zarah David; an untitled painting in graphite on paper by Naseer Ahmed Bhugri; “Next” a painting in oil on canvas by Wajid Ali; an untitled painting in pigment and wooden planks by Sonia Ahmed; an untitled painting in poster paint on paper by Kashif Ali Mangi’ “Samaj” by Kashif Ali Mangi; “Eve” in acrylic on village mat by Mir Askari Abbas; “Local views, global worlds” in digital prints by Amin Rehman; “Look at Me” a sculpture in unbaked terracotta by Sabah Ingvarsson; and “I shall rise”.
There is Absolutely No Honor in Killing’, Husna Anwar, The Express Tribune, 2010
http://tribune.com.pk/story/87299/there-is-absolutely-no-honour-in-killing/
KARACHI: Conventional wisdom brackets artists as elitists, people least concerned with the issues that plague the common person. Inflation, domestic violence and living on the bare necessities do not worry them.
In reality, though, Pakistan’s artists pitch in whenever they can. And on Monday some of them joined hands to launch an exhibition “No honour in killing – making visible the buried truth” at the VM art gallery to show their joint reaction to the brutal murders of five women in Nasirabad.
The exhibition began its travels from Jamshoro and Khairpur, where the issue is prevalent. It then headed to Islamabad and Lahore, finally coming to Karachi.
“The concept of women as property, honour and reward is so deeply entrenched in the social, political and economic fabric of Pakistan that daring to defy the traditions in a ‘man’s world’ could lead to an atrocious ending,” said Marium Agha, one of the artists.
Interestingly, there was more dialogue at the exhibition. Instead of strolling past paintings in quiet observation, people raised their voices against the odious honour killings in Nasirabad and the artwork took a back seat.
Speakers ranged from poet Attiya Dawood and her stirring verses to a brave woman named Khadija who actually ventured to the site of the murders to investigate the incident. “Society now talks against rape, but a lot of people don’t consider honour killing to be wrong,” said Dawood.
“In the city we do not feel that it is our problem, but that horrific incident jolted me into action,” Niilofer Farrukh, the curator of the exhibition told The Express Tribune. “As a curator, I felt that it was my duty to create an opportunity for both known and undiscovered artists.” Kausar Khan, an activist, told the audience in his address how change has come about, even if it has not been as drastic a change as was hoped. She explained how the Nawabpur case in the 1980s – a woman was stripped and paraded in the street – barely created a ripple, the gang rape of Mukhtaran Mai raised voices across the globe and prompted investigations, whereas the recent killing of a girl in Swat had the whole nation in an uproar. “Before this, rapes wouldn’t even be reported, but now not only are parents reporting them, they are also going to court,” said Khan.
The artwork itself was incredibly diverse: vague pieces done in experimental media, contemporary art, photography and ceramics all in one room. Some, like Marium Agha’s “72 virgins for my suicide lover” warranted a second look and some intellectual delving.
Abdul Majeed Mangi, a Khairpur-based artist, made his message very clear — his piece was oil on canvas showing a woman running into a vortex, surrounded on all four sides with dogs, an axe and a gun.
Amin Guljee’s “sun-dried heads II’ sculpture was a depiction of his signature wreath, except this time he used plastic dolls heads encased in bronze to form the ring.
Simeen Farhat and Quin Mathew’s archival print was a rather controversial representation of women as nothing but hollow veils with garbled Arabic script. Sylvat Aziz also made use of veils in her work, whereas Mehr Afroze used muslin and ‘rang’ (coloured powder) to drive her point home.
“Today the world is polarised between two extremes,” she said. “The exploiters of tradition and religion are hell bent on imposing a medieval mindset on the population and those who consider morality and ethics redundant.”
Published in The Express Tribune December 8th, 2010.
.Husna Anwar
December 8, 2010
Restless Memories’, Taimur Ahmed, Herald, 2010
On the same Page’, Saima Salman, Dawn, October 2010
HomePage – A borderless home’,Daily Messenger, October 2010
Home away from home’, Nadeem Zuberi,Business Recorder, October 2010
Painters without Borders’, Shahana Rajani, Newsline, 2010
http://www.newslinemagazine.com/2010/10/painters-without-borders/
The ArtChowk Gallery held a group show of five artists from India, Pakistan, Taiwan and China titled ‘Home-Page’ last month. These artists met and became close friends while studying at Central Saint Martin’s School of Art and Design, in London. They came from different countries, but living in London gave them the opportunity to become part of a global, diasporic artistic practice. They were exhibiting together to share their experiences of a borderless home, in an attempt to go beyond nationalistic concerns and the divisions of East and West.
Manali Shroff says her work revolves around the “surrealism of the everyday,” highlighting the strange uncanny encounters in our mundane lives. Having grown up in Baroda, India, she turns to the rich culture of folk tales and myths to draw connections between man and animal. In her painting titled, ‘I go east, you go west, let’s lead the rest,’ Shroff projects her own self next to a monkey, both shown climbing poles. For the artist, this connection conveys the ape mentality of man and how we are so consumed in life’s vertical race that our sole ambition is to achieve great heights. She calls her work “urban folk tales,” for she relocates the mythical animals into the realm of daily life.
Seher Naveed explores the process of collecting memories. Shifting from Karachi to London, a city forever flocked with tourists, she began observing tourists and their obsession with the camera. Rather than living in the moment, we struggle to preserve memories for the future, so much so that we are unable to fully experience the place because we only see it through the lens. Wanting to break free from this, Naveed draws from memory, constructing multiple layers. Human compulsion to preserve is conveyed in the way she taxidermies her memory in boxes of acrylic. However, she introduces the medium of tracing paper to evoke a feeling of transience.
Growing up in the town of Mangla, Naveed was witness to the destruction of 150 villages during the construction of the Mangla Dam. Thousands of lives were callously uprooted and dislocated. Naveed constructs boxes in an attempt to preserve the memory of those washed away homes. The houses are built using paper to show their vulnerable existence.
Marium Agha, also from Karachi, has on display 72 squares of embroidered cloth, titled ‘Seventy-two Virgins.’ The title mockingly refers to the supposed promise of 72 virgins who await a good Muslim in heaven. In her work, Agha engages in issues arising from a failed democratic government and the apathy of Muslims. In this exhibition, she explores the phenomenon of suicide bombing. The artist humorously explains how she had so often heard people writing off suicide bombers as sex-starved men, giving up their lives for the 72 virgins waiting in heaven. Through fabric and thread, she started creating visuals of the heavenly virgin genitalia. Her work alludes to the conflicts and clashes in perceptions that infest our society. For example, the wide gap between what Islam is, and what is taught to us.
Ivy Chan also challenges cultural and symbolic meanings, but in a vastly different way. Born in China but currently living in London, she creates her artworks using pencil shavings, which form an enchanting, almost dizzying pattern. Chan states that her work deals with the transformation of quotidian objects by showing “familiar things in unfamiliar ways.” Pencil shavings are usually considered worthless, but Chan retains their individuality and forms a pattern, alluding to issues of mass production and factory mentality in China.
Taiwan’s Jo Ying Peng explores the notion of a borderless home more directly. She explains that between departure and arrival, she is always on the way home. Home is not geographically fixed but mobile. In her mixed media series, she fixes burnt paper on a transparent base, imprinting on it words like ‘belongingness.’ As humans, we all feel the need to belong. However, travel in today’s globalised world and living between two countries, un-anchors us. Peng herself is a “transnational” artist – a term used to refer to the growing number of people who have legal and economic freedom to move across borders. Her search for belonging within transnational communities shows how the meaning of home becomes stretched over time and space.
We are used to thinking of artists in terms of their origins. This exhibition aims to impress upon us an awareness of our common nature, that transcends geographical and cultural boundaries. Whilst preserving some particularity from their homelands, the artist’s explain how living abroad allows them to see things anew, offering alternate visions. They surpass stereotypical representations of space and time, and of history and geography, by drawing up on their experiences of travel and diaspora, feelings of longing and belonging, memories of places and people and multiple cultural traditions.
Painting a borderless home’, Rabia Ashfaque, The Express Tribune, 2010
http://tribune.com.pk/story/53038/painting-a-borderless-home/
KARACHI: It was not what they had in common that brought these five young artists together, but what they did not.
Studying at the Central St Martin’s College of Art and Design in London, Pakistani artists Seher Naveed and Marium Agha were still getting used to the idea of living away from home when they met Manali Shroff, Ivy Hon Mei Chan and Jo Ying Peng.
Together, the five artists began to explore their roots and memories to create visual narratives that went beyond their own realm of existence and slowly started to grasp the meaning of being at home, away from home.
This was the birth of “Homepage”, an exhibition that opens at the ArtChowk gallery today (Wednesday).
A study of the real versus the representational, “Homepage” talks about a person’s quest to find a space, real or hypothetical, that can be identified with on a personal level. And for the five young artists from Pakistan, India, China and Taiwan, it represents the idea of belonging to a borderless home.
In her work, Naveed explores the idea of physically living in one urban space and virtually being part of another. She went to London with the intention of exploring her interest in cityscapes and has been working with urban landscapes ever since. It was perhaps this desire to find a balance between her surroundings and her roots that made Naveed call her visual journey “Living in a window punctuated world”.
Naveed’s interest in lines and perspectives developed into a three-dimensional body of work that holds a distinctly architectural quality to it. She has constructed, de-constructed and manipulated geometric forms to represent her constant struggle between permanence and change. “Once in a box”, “A forest I knew”, “The leftovers” and “Time pieces”, the strongest images in her body of work, realise her state of limbo and a desire to find some middle-ground. These red and white pieces strike a strong contrast that seems to clash and come together all at once.
“By seeing what we look at, one develops a relationship with an object,” was Agha’s take on the subject. She sought to do away with the idea of preconceived notions, demanding that the viewer develop a “relationship” with an object without tainting the experience by looking at the object in any other context or framework. In her work, Agha uses influences from her home and symbols of the society she had left behind when she went to London. For her, a “failed democratic government” and an “apathetic Muslim” populace added to the confusion of being an individual who existed in such a setting.
Shroff’s paintings were suffused with the surrealism of the everyday. The Indian artist took inspiration from visions and eccentric encounters in her daily life, incorporating images of people, insects and animals to create what can maybe be described as urban folktales. A particularly interesting piece, titled “Love and lust (2)”, realises the concept of fatal attraction – that of a moth to a flame – Shroff’s take on the subject being to replace the moth with a swarm of flies and the flame with a light bulb. Other particularly captivating pieces by the artist include “And the world calls us Colonial Cousins” and “Hark Hark -The dogs do bark”.
Chan’s work held an almost hypnotic quality. Her pieces, created primarily out of pencil shavings, dealt with the transformation and reconfiguration of quotidian objects. By showing “familiar things in unfamiliar ways”, the Chinese artist not only explores the characteristics of materials, but also the cultural and symbolic meanings of objects.
“Between arrival and departure” was the title of the body of work created by the last artist in the show. In her series, Peng, an artist from Taiwan, explores the relationship between the real and the figurative through sepia toned images.
The show will open today between 5:30 pm and 8 pm and will continue till September 30.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 22nd, 2010.
Strokes to ponder’, Luavut Zahid, The News International, 2008
Refreshingly Green- Karara Exhibition’, Sheema Zain, Business Recorder, 2008
http://www.brecorder.com/index.php?id=799817&currPageNo=1&query=&search=&term=&supDate=
‘Fresh Paint’, Salwat Ali, News line, 2007.
http://www.newsline.com.pk/NewsJan2007/artlinejan2007.htm.
MAFA Central Saint Martins
http://mafacsm.com/works/marium-agha/
VASL - International Artist Collective
http://www.vaslart.org/artists%20pages/artistspages/folder.2010-01-18.0951619762/