Art that interacts with the viewer

Laberintour opens at Satrang Art Gallery.

ISLAMABAD:

An art exhibition’s success is usually measured by the number of people it attracts, but it is definitely more successful when the art is such that it creates an interaction with its viewer.

The exhibition titled “Laberintour”, is one such art show that opened for display at the Satrang Art Gallery on Friday. It is being held by the Argentinean Embassy in collaboration with Serena Hotel.

With 28 art pieces on display, the exhibition brings the work of seven artists, including Argentina’s Jorge Canale, to the spotlight.

Besides Canale, the other artists - Jamil Baloch, Noor Ali Chagni, Maha Ahmed, Tahir Ali, Qadir Jhatial and Suleman Mengal are all graduates of National College of Arts, Lahore.

Staying true to the exhibition’s name, Canale paints abstract labyrinths, as he finds his inspiration in the myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. “The image of a labyrinth reveals the fascination that man has had for a form that must be solved, or accomplished, as life itself proposes,” he states.

The artists examine a restrictive and complicated maze, both visually and spatially, through various techniques and mediums, taking impressions and judgments into their surroundings and hence forming a critical representation of a distorted reality.

Baloch, whose art is inspired by socio-economic inequalities, works with acrylic on paper, portraying a mesh that seems too thick to penetrate. He emphasises on the dire affect of sightlessness and ignorance.

Jhatial, on the other hand, is inspired by social discrepancies. He paints his work with eye-catching bright colours, showing normal situations such as a walking person’s figure, a complex chromatic order which takes a few seconds for the viewer to decipher.

Moving away from social issues, Ali’s paintings are jarred abstract depictions of landscapes that have been distorted and inverted and are almost unrecognisable. However, they are carefully composed to reduce the viewers’ ability to see through the dreamlike landscape, which is much like the experience in a labyrinth.

Maha Ahmed and Noor Chagani create interesting installations made from minute individual parts that form a larger sculpture. Chagni works with tiny bricks to build walls. His piece, “Pixels of my portrait”, encases these bricks in a mirror frame.

“My work revolves around the concept of home. Being a kid from a broken home, I feel very close to the idea of home, family and personal space. Bricks hold a significant place in my work, they represent all my feelings, it acts as a building unit of my dreams,” states Chagni. Maha’s maze-like sculpture, composed of multiple open and closed tiny boxes, represents an individual’s life. Her aim is to express the unfinished business that human souls leave behind.

Perhaps most intriguing piece is the installation by Mengal placed on the entrace. It gives the illusion of walking on nails, but the tricky walkway allows visitors to walk on the path unharmed.

“By making people walk on nails, I have changed the perception of the apparent reality. It depicts how we become numb to a certain situation or pain after a certain period of time,” he explains.

The exhibition will continue till October 12

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th, 2012.