Danse macabre: Don’t speak loudly

Exhibition underway at Taseer Art Gallery

LAHORE: Danse Macabre—an exhibition featuring the work of Faizan Naveed and Hassnain Awais—commenced on Tuesday at Taseer Art Gallery.

Naveed, who has five photographic pieces on display, said to date photography was mostly associated and identified as a medium of documentation. But, he said, the beauty of the medium was that it often turned its subjects more real than they actually were.  “I have tried to arrange my subjects in way that they end up looking very real and natural when presented through the medium of photography,” Naveed said.

He said he was trying to mock miniature art in his work. Naveed said this was so because there was a misconception associated with Pakistani artists that they focussed primarily on miniature art. “This is not true. There are plenty of other mediums too and contemporary artists have been exploring them too,” he said. Naveed said he had studied light in detail to develop the pictures to make sense of how it changed the perception of different objects. “My basic practice is based on experimenting with light, time and space,” he said.

Naveed, a Lahore-based artist, graduated from the Beaconhouse National University (BNU) in 2012. He has been working there as a visiting faculty member.

A dozen pieces by Awais exploring bestiality among humans are also being displayed as part of the exhibit. He said his work was premised on the subtle animalistic features that could be read between the lines of every individual. Awais said he had been inspired by Greek mythology and the Indian belief that all individuals could be represented by a certain animal. The artist has touched a darker side of humour by juxtaposing animal heads on human bodies in his work after having linked them with a certain trait.

Speaking about one of his paintings—So We Sound Odd—Awais said he had mocked the culture of shouting when two people were in conversation at private gatherings or at talk shows on television. The painting features two people seated across a table. One has the head of a donkey while the other has that of a moose.

The artist said both animals were known for the loud screeching noises they made. Hence, he said, he had associated them with those who spoke loudly out of habit.

The exhibition will conclude on April 1.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 24^th, 2016.