Remembering Ussman Ghauri: Eight artists get together for The Body 6x3

The human form is a common theme in all 16 pieces on show at Koel gallery.

KARACHI: Aging cherubs, mutilated dolls, nude women, bright colours on 6x3 feet large canvases have taken over Koel gallery.

The idea behind ‘The Body 6x3’ was for the artists to use the show to re-evaluate their viewpoints and discover their current engagements with the human body. Eight different artists, including Meher Afroz, Irfan Gul and Waseem Ahmed, were invited to showcase their work on 6x3 (feet and inch) canvases with a specific request to use the human form by the late artist Ussman Ghauri.

The exhibition has been curated by a Lahore-based artist, R M Naeem, in memory of Ghauri.

The open gallery space was dominated by Ali Azmat’s ‘Let the flowers bloom’, with its rough and moody red texture. His work focused on how the present generation was nurturing the future generation, illustrated by a mother holding her child. The violent red was almost painful to look at because of the mutilated baby dolls strung along on barbed wire. In fact, it was like looking at a grotesque version of Pinocchio. However, the theme for his other piece, also titled ‘Let the flowers bloom’ was an intimate moment shared between a father and his child. It was like a close-up snapshot taken at a family vacation. In his statement, he said that his work was the result of what he saw around him, the country, the unrest and insecurity.

From something as bloody as Azmat’s work, the other side of the room was rather quiet. Meher Afroz and R M Naeem had used hues of blue and grey to depict two different themes. Afroz’s work primarily focused on personality and human nature. Her smaller 6x3 piece was made of two hollow faces bobbing to a secret rhythm. The other piece was depressing yet grand, with fine robes etched with silver and a face floating around while a man sat curled up in a corner.

It was clear that all the artists missed Ghauri. “Dear Ussman, I am sure you must be missing all the idiots in heaven,” said the curator in his artist’s statement.

Naeem pushed the limits of the exhibition with an installation piece titled ‘Pakistan Today’, a 6x3 inch-wide rectangular box with an imprint of the Pakistani flag and an aging cherub. For the artist, the box tried to depict how he felt. In his statement, he explained that sometimes you cannot refuse to give in to or resist countless intense gravities which constantly grow inside you. “I have been unable to control this twinge inside myself that has resulted in this particular series,” he said.

Naeem’s cherub is followed by shades of brown and gold in Naveed Sadiq’s ‘Shagird aur mein’ and ‘Shagird’. The artist’s work was quite experimental and upbeat but with a traditional twist. Inspired by Mughal miniature art, he tried to mesh the present with the past. From the student to the body of a nude man slumped on blobs of brown, Irfan Gul’s dark art pieces had a psychological intensity which was strengthened by the double shade of skin which signified a loss of morality.

Waseem Ahmed’s piece titled ‘A virtuous perversion’ was the real show stealer. Light on the eyes and oozing sensuality, it was inspired by men’s magazines from the 1980s. It was as if he had spun gold on the blank canvas; his poster woman was positioned to sit erotically in one corner with her hair - long, luscious and luxurious - swept all over the place.

In his statement, he said that when he saw the canvas he became obsessed and all he wanted to do was touch the surface with colour.

Also present between the cherubs and nudity was Saba Khan’s ‘An expensive wall hanging’ which poked fun at the government. A man named Lucifer, who could have been the president or a former martial law administrator, was the centre of attraction. Draped in a silver cloth and embellished with sequins with a pink skeleton, Khan’s work was flamboyantly weird and modern. In her statement she claimed that her other piece, ‘High Chair’ was inspired by the seductive bling of cheap trinkets in Lahore.

The exhibition will continue till September 19.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 9^th,  2011.