Arte Povera: Yasser Vayani creates art out of nothingness

Artist transforms broken marble tiles, thumb pins, rusted iron rods into sculptures

KARACHI: In an unprecedented metamorphosis of its own kind, 24-year-old artist Yasser Vayani created art out of miscellaneous objects rendered worthless.

Showcasing his works at an exhibition titled 'Linear (Im)Possibilities' at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture gallery, the young artist brought forward sculptures he created out of pieces of broken marble tiles, thumb pins and rusted iron rods, among other objects. Visiting the show would be an enthralling experience as it opens the avenue to a world where old, useless stuff is employed to create something artistic. "I found objects off the street or from things lying randomly near the place I live like these iron rods," Vayani told The Express Tribune.



His exhibition is part of an art event being curated by Seher Naveed. "This is a four-part series, [titled] 'Documenting Drawings', in which three artists have [so far] showcased their work," she said, adding that besides Vayani, artists Suleman Khilji and Moeen Farooqi have exhibited their works while Saba Khan will showcase her collection later in the year. "This is an extensive work, documenting the expanded field of drawing, thinking in terms of lines and [three-dimensional] 3D objects."

Dwelling upon his reasons for creating art using transformations, Vayani talked about how he drew inspiration from the Italian Arte Povera movement. "People in general may throw these [objects] away but I like to reuse them as sculpture pieces for my artwork," he said. "They create a statement. Besides, the Arte Povera concept is something I like to practice in my work."

Arte Povera was a modern art movement, which started in the end of 1960s in Italy. Back in the day, artists used to create objects from worthless random stuff, in the hope of ending commercialisation of art in the long run.



Out of the six sculpture pieces that were presented on the floor of the gallery, one intriguing piece was titled 'Unity and Division within Formation'. According to Vayani, he drew his inspiration from the work of Chinese artist Song Dong, who collected things to present his artistic endeavours. "He collected things and so here I am doing the same thing," he said. "In this sculpture, there are pieces of Lego, Post-It notepads, empty bottles of some of my favourite colognes and several other business cards besides thumb pins. A lot of people may discard these kinds of stuff. But I believe sculpture can be presented as a concise object [using these objects]."

In the same vein, another sculpture, titled 'What lies beneath us', takes cue from American artist Carl Andre's work. In this work, the artist covered a part of the gallery's floor with broken marble tiles. Talking about it, Vayani said he believes art should not just be elitist and that he plans to challenge this thought process.

In another work, titled 'Palindrome', he employed unused rusted steel rods, creating an installation on the marble-tiled floor lining of the gallery. "It's like a chess game, which is a fun thing to do," said Vayani.

The 24-year-old sculptor also shared his general views on art. "Art is an escape from this world," he said. "There is an on-going existential crisis within me against life. Art gives me a reason to live [and] also a reason to get disconnected with my surrounding environment."  The exhibition continues at the IVS Gallery till August 31, 2016.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 17^th, 2016.