Painting exhibition: How violence affects behaviour

Work inspired by artist’s visit to Afghanistan in 2008.

LAHORE:

“The painting Left Right is a comment on the way people’s behaviour gets shaped in a hostile environment. With lots of armed men and violence around them, people no longer retain their free will. Their actions are dependent on the commands of others,” said Imran Mudassar on Monday. He was speaking at his third solo exhibition, I AM YOURS, at the Rohtas 2 Art Gallery.

Mudassar graduated in print making from NCA in 2008. The 12 paintings displayed at the exhibition were part of his final thesis project. One of his paintings, Life Drawing, is displayed at the British Museum of Painting.

He said the works were inspired by his visit to Afghanistan in 2008. He said he had used human hearts and weapons side-by-side to show how life and death were interlinked in a war zone. In the paintings, he said, he had explored the affect people’s surroundings had on their personalities.

“Most of my work is a comment on the world around me,” he said.

Salima Hashmi said this was the most impressive exhibition she had been to lately. “Though he is new in the field, his work can compete with that of an experienced artist,” he said. She said she especially liked the way he had used black and golden colours in the paintings.

The artist has been trained as a print maker. He has used embossment and print making techniques on canvas in his recent work. He has embossed and printed the images in golden on a black background.

The exhibition will continue till April 27.



Published in The Express Tribune, April 19^th, 2011.