Sculptors’ paradise: Artists inspired by nature, technology

Hairy newborn, human representation made of electronic parts and tree with 3 million roots on display at NCA.


Sonia Malik January 19, 2012

LAHORE:


A 15-foot circular iron mesh completely covered with tubular pieces of coal remained the biggest attraction for most visitors at the National College of Arts theses on display since Wednesday.


Shoukat Ali Hunzai, 27, referred to his iron-coal globe, installed outside the Fine Arts Department, as a portrayal of the concept of collective conscience by putting organic raw material, such as coal, to constructive use rather than destructive, such as burning.

He said it took him two months to prepare the piece. Four more installations by Hunzai were on display, all of them made of bicycle parts. Each of them was connected to another bicycle through the front or rear tyres, presenting the artist’s concept of human dependency. With modified seats and wheels, the cycles were priced at Rs25,000 each. The coal and iron sphere was for sale at Rs200,000.

Work of four more sculptors was spread over three galleries.

Shoaib Aziz, 24, used books and human hair to prepare 10 pieces depicting the concept of life and death. His Tree of Life with three million multi-shaded human hair strands as roots was a focus of large attention.

He said he had collected the strands over two months from hair salons, friends and family. The piece is priced at Rs400,000.

Aziz’s personal favourite is a baby’s face made from a book.

“While cutting some books for one of my sculptures, I accidentally cut one from the wrong side. But then I realised that I could sculpt it into something substantial for my exhibit,” he said. He sewed and shaped the books to make a baby’s face that give different expressions from each angle. “If you rotate the head, it will appear anxious from some angles, and content and happy from another.”

Each book sculpture is priced at Rs100,000. Aziz’s other works included provocative art such as an open uterus and a hairy newborn.

Rehmat Kareem, who made four installations with electrical sockets, wires and switchboards, said he wanted to explore the importance of technology in today’s world.

Kareem’s Urbanscape, a piece bringing together a mesh of buildings and streets, depicted technology’s impact on construction.

The 27-year-old student said he tried to give an impression of an advanced city, where life was fast paced and people were technologically savvy. Urbanscape was priced at Rs150,000.

The other pieces were a human body put together using electrical spare parts and wires, a thread installation and a mass-production carpet weaving machine.

Kareem said the piece drawing most attention was the thread installation, which was his representation of “the hidden geometry of the universe.”

“It is one of my earlier pieces, which I decided to include in the display,” he said.

Rmaam Raja, 28, displayed five pieces, sculpted using cotton, polyester and hair.

He explained that a massive mushroom composed of human hair represented the slow loss of human life to smoke and pollution. Another piece that got much attention was an army officer’s camouflaged uniform stained with images of smoke and dirt.

“This represents unnecessary loss of life in war,” he said.

None of his works were titled or priced. “I have not thought of it yet,” he said.

Suleman Mangle made sculptures using nails to depict destruction.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 20th, 2012.

COMMENTS

Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ