Solo show: Of darkness and light

Exhibition featuring work of visual artist underway

LAHORE: One rarely gets an opportunity to view landscapes in their totality or experience their physicality through pictures, observes visual artist Ali Kazim.

He made the remarks while speaking to The Express Tribune on the sidelines of …Of Darkness and Light—a solo exhibition featuring his work—that commenced at the Rohtas II Art Gallery on Tuesday. Kazim said the aforementioned observation had made him aspire to render by drawing on an expansive canvas.

“Even from an extremely formal pint of view, I have tried to enjoy the experience of drawing by making huge landscapes,” he said. Kazim said he had been inspired by the way history includes bygone civilisations such as the ones in Mohenjo-Daro and Harappa. A significant aspect of his etchings and ceramic work is the use of references from space, the moon and Mars.

Former National College of Arts (NCA) principal Nazish Attaullah said the huge canvas on display represented what great pleasure the artist took in drawing. “These landscapes do not have to be peculiar to one particular place. This is why looking at the drawing makes you feel that you’ve come across it somewhere before,” she said. Attaullah said Kazim’s work struck a chord with visitors as it was not a photograph but an experience that made its way back to individuals.

NCA Associate Professor Fakharullah Tahir said one could associate the artist’s work with something like a wish to be on the moon’s surface that had been fulfilled by the drawings. “A great deal of his work may come across as Martian landscapes but it also represents evolution of life. A life that got ruined and scattered at some point in the past,” he said. NCA Associate Professor Naheed Fakhar, who teaches at the varsity’s miniature department, said Kazim’s work left one with a “fantasised” feeling of being present somewhere unlikely in outer space. “For example, symbolising a heart among stones is an attempt to explore the significance of time in a life form,” she said.

Kazim, who relocated from Pattoki to Lahore to work as a male nurse, graduated from the NCA in 2002 after becoming serious about his passion for drawing. He went on to obtain a master’s degree from London’s Slade School of Fine Art. The exhibition will conclude on March 5.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2016.