Rohtas 2: ‘Indivisibilities Inventory’ displayed

Artists talk about techniques, values in their work.

LAHORE: “My work is rooted in a cross-sectional interest in space whether referencing a built environment or a landscape. The work is about exploring a range of layers in space, as it is experienced and as it transfers to a visual form,” said Sana Mustafa Ali at Rohtas 2 where her and Mehr Javed’s work is on display since January 4.

The two artists shared their thoughts with The Express Tribune about what they had tried to display in their work titled Indivisibilities Inventory.

Ali said her work spoke of disjuncture and fragmentation, to refer to the socio-economic conditions and the reality of life specific to the region.”  She said that her work maintained an interest in a non-descript condition and sought to persuade the viewer to experience it rather than just appraising and describing it.

She said her work sought also to undermine the materialism associated with our time.

Mehr Javed’s work is dominated by geometric patterns. She referred to her work as a ‘proportional’ relationship between the timeless and the temporal.

“As a visual structure, these geometric lattices are anti-narrative and reject any sequential reading. They come close to describing a state of virtual stasis, pregnant with ‘all-possibilities’, which can manifest itself in a sensory form as it unfolds. That is what fascinates me most about them,” she said.

Ali, a graduate of Rhode Island School of Design, USA and Javed, a graduate of College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales, Sydney, are two artists whose artwork is a must mention when a blend of intricacy and simplicity in art is talked about.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 11^th, 2011.