Exhibit on preservation of old papers on display

Dastan Kissa Kahani showcases art of keeping alive letters and documents

ISLAMABAD:

An exhibition titled “Dastan Kissa Kahani” currently on display at Satrang Gallery received an overwhelming response from people who thronged the gallery to learn the art of preserving old paper such as letters and documents.

The artist Hassnain Awais particularly explores the practice of preserving paper records in order to create archives. Such physical archives hold layers of memories within them, and eventually, take on sentimental if not monetary value. In an increasingly digital era, this method of recording history and culture is in danger of growing obsolete.

Hassnain created beautiful and intricate works, masterfully representing the delicacy of historical archives. Mediums such as watercolour washes, oil paints, digital prints, kitchen lithography and color pencils brought to life, lessons told through stories.

Hussnain Awais is an artist born and raised in Lahore. Graduated with a degree in fine arts, majored in printmaking, and was awarded with an honours degree in 2005. Currently, he’s working as a freelance artist and running an independent printmaking studio by the name of ‘Studio Hassnain’ providing other fellow printmakers a facility to do printmaking, alongside conducting workshops and residencies.

While talking to The Express Tribune, Artist Hassnain Awais said that archives consisting of records that have been selected for permanent or long-term preservation on grounds of their enduring cultural, historical, or evidentiary value, such records are normally not published and are mostly unique, unlike books or magazines which may have identical copies. “We have a strange bond with these archival papers and the fact that we are slowly moving away from them is upsetting,” he added.

He further said that memories have a strange tendency of fading away with time yet many fragments are always there lurking within the depths of our minds and heart.

He claimed that his work revolves around a feeling or an affection that one develops with such personalized papers, letters, and envelopes.

Hania Khan, a visitor to the gallery, said every art piece which has been put on display in the exhibition gave a different experience and lesson. She said that such exhibitions offered a quite unique experience in this era of digitisation when the entire focus is on digitizing the old records, she added.

Zahra Khan, the curator of the exhibition, said 'Dastan Kisa Kahani' was a solo show by Artist Hassnain Awais, who used watercolor, oil paints, digital print, kitchen lithography, and pencils in his mesmerizing and intricate work which had a sensational outlook.

 

Published in The Express Tribune, October 6^th, 2022.