Seeking entry into the past
As a dreamer, Naveed Sadiq has yet to fully reconcile with his present.
KARACHI:
As a dreamer, Naveed Sadiq has yet to fully reconcile with his present. A man who partly lives in the past, Sadiq was unsure that his concerns could be answered in his body of work, titled “The Sepia Voyage”, which is currently on display at the Koel Gallery.
With questions that seem to fall in line with those asked by the likes of Faiz and Iqbal, Sadiq has initiated a bold discussion. His concerns address the barriers between him and his happiness.
Conflict is, thus, by far the dominant emotion in his work. It is also what Sadiq wished to address in the series that took more than three years to shape into a solo exhibition.
“I never sought a show. At least not this soon, just a few years after graduation,” said the miniaturist, who graduated from the National College of Arts, Lahore, in 2006. The Sepia Voyage consists of works big and small, in vasli and gouache, gold leaf and sufaidah with all of them stained with tea, a common practice with miniature artists.
When he was approached for the show, Sadiq was already working on a series titled “Debate of Saint” - a dialogue between his present and past life. “I was dealing with the idea of creating a dialogue between the cultural and religious practices surrounding us,” said Sadiq.
He feels that while the world had fewer tools to work with in the past, people then were more invested in their lives than people today, who seem unperturbed by the confusion surrounding them.
Sadiq feels that people are living without knowing what they want and why they want what they do.
It troubles him to see that today’s world is one in which material desires have eclipsed others. We seem farther away from the times when happiness was easier to achieve with less.
“Na larro”, “Mein Nahin Dekh Saka” and “Shah Jahan, Dara Shikoh aur Mein” are three of the pieces at the show that truly stand out in terms of a near-perfect union of concept and technique.
The mirror-like quality of some other compositions reinforces the artist’s desire to look at the past and find it reflected in his present.
According to the curator of the show, Usman Ghouri, Sadiq’s work merits close attention as it is divided into distinct, parallel compartments with references to the past and the artist’s interpretation of it.
“The sepia wash adds a nostalgic dimension to the work, underscoring its links with foregone times,” Ghouri added. The show will continue till Monday, August 16, at the Koel Gallery.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 9th, 2010.
As a dreamer, Naveed Sadiq has yet to fully reconcile with his present. A man who partly lives in the past, Sadiq was unsure that his concerns could be answered in his body of work, titled “The Sepia Voyage”, which is currently on display at the Koel Gallery.
With questions that seem to fall in line with those asked by the likes of Faiz and Iqbal, Sadiq has initiated a bold discussion. His concerns address the barriers between him and his happiness.
Conflict is, thus, by far the dominant emotion in his work. It is also what Sadiq wished to address in the series that took more than three years to shape into a solo exhibition.
“I never sought a show. At least not this soon, just a few years after graduation,” said the miniaturist, who graduated from the National College of Arts, Lahore, in 2006. The Sepia Voyage consists of works big and small, in vasli and gouache, gold leaf and sufaidah with all of them stained with tea, a common practice with miniature artists.
When he was approached for the show, Sadiq was already working on a series titled “Debate of Saint” - a dialogue between his present and past life. “I was dealing with the idea of creating a dialogue between the cultural and religious practices surrounding us,” said Sadiq.
He feels that while the world had fewer tools to work with in the past, people then were more invested in their lives than people today, who seem unperturbed by the confusion surrounding them.
Sadiq feels that people are living without knowing what they want and why they want what they do.
It troubles him to see that today’s world is one in which material desires have eclipsed others. We seem farther away from the times when happiness was easier to achieve with less.
“Na larro”, “Mein Nahin Dekh Saka” and “Shah Jahan, Dara Shikoh aur Mein” are three of the pieces at the show that truly stand out in terms of a near-perfect union of concept and technique.
The mirror-like quality of some other compositions reinforces the artist’s desire to look at the past and find it reflected in his present.
According to the curator of the show, Usman Ghouri, Sadiq’s work merits close attention as it is divided into distinct, parallel compartments with references to the past and the artist’s interpretation of it.
“The sepia wash adds a nostalgic dimension to the work, underscoring its links with foregone times,” Ghouri added. The show will continue till Monday, August 16, at the Koel Gallery.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 9th, 2010.