‘Tulipmania’ opens: Symbol of love miniaturised

A symbol of love originating from the east, Tulip features heavily in Alia Bilgrami’s latest exhibition.


Momina Sibtain March 04, 2011

ISLAMABAD:


A sensuous symbol of love originating from the east and appropriated by the west, Tulip features heavily in Alia Bilgrami’s latest exhibition “Tulipmania”. The show opened at Rohtas Art Gallery in Islamabad on Thursday.


Bilgrama amalgamates miniature art and photo emulsion techniques in her work, which is a refreshing change from mainstream art.

In her work Bilgrami highlights the significance of the flower in our lives and history. Throughout the Mughal period, tulip buds were traded across Europe as priceless items. To them tulips were like gold, precious and rare.

Experimenting with different mediums and breaking the norms of miniature, this collection sees the use of plywood as a surface to translate the artist’s forethought.

“I have always questioned the notion of displacement, articulating the feeling using symbols that remind me of places that I have lived in,” said Bilgrami. “These works contain fragments from my own sense of dislocation.”

The Islamabad-based artist graduated with a degree in miniature painting from Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture in Karachi and went on to Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London to earn her Master of Fine Arts.

Bilgrami’s skill is in her need to experiment. The liquid light prints using photo emulsion technique are one of a kind and are one-off pieces that cannot be replicated or reproduced.

So even in her photography the artist has ensured that her work is exclusive and unique, and resonates with her style.

Renowned art critic and curator Aasim Akhtar said, “Bilgrami’s subdued technique, which applies the paint layer by layer and yet keeps it translucent, conveys the characteristic silence fed by a richness of colours that contain features of a strong presence.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 4th, 2011.

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