Muhammad Ali is an artist of the senses — his paintings are so visually complex, realistic and detailed that a good look at them awakens all the senses. Typical of his style, Ali’s recent exhibition at Canvas Gallery, Karachi, titled ‘Rainbow of Y-Our Own’ evokes many emotions using familiar imagery and famous personalities.
For Ali, the act of painting in itself means something: it highlights his frustration as an artist in a commercialised world where his paintings act as commodities. His piece, Beauty With a Chance of Meatballs depicts Bollywood beauty Deepika Padukone in a sultry pose, inviting the viewer to look at her. However, each of Ali’s paintings has a twist. While Deepika looks alluring, a dollop of spaghetti and meatballs placed on her midriff and hair mars the perfect scenario and irritates the viewer. Why was it placed there? It seems Ali is highlighting how beauty and ugliness go together, and people/situations are never perfect, nor what they seem to be at first glance.
The Immaculate Ejection. PHOTOS COURTESY CANVAS GALLERY
No Place Like Home. PHOTOS COURTESY CANVAS GALLERY
Fruit Chaat displays a pink sari-clad melody queen Madam Noor Jehan, lounging in a royal setting amidst an array of beautifully painted, succulent food and flowers that look tangible. Her pose reminds one of Edouard Manet’s 1863 painting, Olympia, and the use of chiaroscuro (contrasted light and shadow) takes one back to the Renaissance. Ali finds food to be second nature to flesh. Perhaps, the placement of his subject amidst it denotes the way with which women are often looked at — something that can be devoured — as well as the luxury and excess that comes with celebrity-status.
The Immaculate Ejection is one of the most exciting pieces. It reminds you of a Renaissance painting gone awry; it is at first glance, amusing and startling. Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh looks at the viewer cheekily as he goes about his business in the toilet, while cherubs carrying toilet paper hover above him affectionately. Not only is the actor painted to perfection, his perspective of the floor and walls give the impact of a tight, closed-in space. Also, he pairs conflicting emotions successfully — in this case, amusement and disgust. How excrement can be ‘immaculate’ is ironic hinting on how the media glosses over trivial things and makes them appear glamorous and larger-than-life.
Death By Chocolate. PHOTOS COURTESY CANVAS GALLERY
Beauty With A Chance Of Meatballs. PHOTOS COURTESY CANVAS GALLERY
Like a few other pieces, Death by Chocolate does not use the celebrity as a tool to convey ideas. Here, Ali depicts a dead, faceless man smothered will all kinds of delicious treats, while hooded women in black mourn him. However, a closer look reveals the presence of insects on his body, and the fact that the ‘women’ aren’t really mourning him at all — they seem to be harbingers of death that will take him to his next journey. This painting depicts a morbid theme by fetishising it with gourmet delicacies and sexualising it. It is as if the luxurious lifestyle of this man is eating him away — the hopelessness of the material world takes over any hope of salvation after death.
Apparition displays Pakistani dictator General Ziaul Haq lifting his veil. The painting seems to suggest the return of a ghost from the past, which speaks of the repetitive political climate of Pakistan. The veil is an important symbol here. It replaces the subjects with the ruler who subjected them to his Islamisation policies such as making women cover their heads on television. Also, it represents how often the true nature of politics is shrouded from the public.
Ali’s work is about social commentary that aims to explore social and political narratives through the appropriation of celebrities’ images as well as depictions of ordinary people. According to Ali, “If you’re using a popular face you can talk about a lot of things in a sophisticated manner. Since everyone either knows them or of them, they become part of the conversation.”
Since Ali’s work speaks for itself, the short statement — borrowed from Bruce Wayne in Batman Begins — describing the exhibition was an apt choice: “People need dramatic examples to shake them out of apathy. As a man, I’m flesh and blood. I can be ignored. I can be destroyed. But as a symbol I can be incorruptible. I can be everlasting.” This is very true of the symbols used in Ali’s work, which will leave an impact that will last for a long time.
Shanzay Subzwari is a Fine Arts student.
She tweets @ShanzaySubzwari
Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, December 14th, 2014.
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