Language and art: Ghulam Muhammad expresses love for Urdu through paper collage

His favourite scripts are Naskh and Thuluth

KARACHI: Young artist Ghulam Muhammad has come out with his best work at his recent exhibition, 'Kutubkhana', through which he expresses his love for the Urdu language.

The show opened at the Sanat gallery on Friday and will run till January 28. Focusing on the beauty of the language and its script, the Beaconhouse National University fine arts graduate uses it as a medium to express his imagination.

"I see language as something that leaves behind in its construction a mass of abstract emotions, feelings and sensations that inform identity," said the young artist, explaining the idea behind working on the language.

In Sanat's first exhibition, Muhammad had displayed a few works that have been taken a step forward in his recent works. He went on to explain how he came up with the idea of text and language as a medium of expression after completing his graduation in 2013.

In the last stage of his thesis work, he decided to work on letters from books. Muhammad took four months to complete as many as 11 brilliant pieces of art using gold leaf, silver leaf, tea, paints and Urdu alphabet paper cuttings. "I work for almost 20 hours a day for seven days a week," said the young artist.

Young artist Ghulam Muhammad’s works are collages of paper cuttings of Urdu script pasted on wasli. He has added components of gold leaf, silver leaf, Iranian ink and other elements to express his love for the language. PHOTOS: COURTESY SANAT GALLERY

Muhammad's body of work comprises paper collages and Iranian ink on wasli. "Kutubkhana, which focuses on language, is the idea of an identity which we are forgetting," he said. "I always prefer wasli handmade paper to work on as it is long-lasting and suitable for archival."

Explaining the idea behind forming a collage on wasli, Muhammad said that 'wasal' means togetherness and this is what each of his works illustrates. "Using transcriptions from old books, letters and other scripts and transforming them into my work was a means to recycle Urdu in its best form," he said.

'Naskh' and 'thuluth' are the types of khat [scripts] mostly preferred by the artist. "I somehow merged khat-e-Kufi [Kufic] with Naskh in this piece," he said, pointing towards one of his pieces comprising paper collage, tea wash and silver leaf on wasli.

In another work, Muhammad has depicted the map of his native village, Zardad, situated near Sibi, Balochistan. "I worked on this idea because I wanted to dedicate one of my works to my people who are living a hard and difficult life there."

The technique of layer burning through laser helps the artist subtly change the artwork's dimension from two-dimensional to three-dimensional. Talking about how he wants people to react when they look at his work, he said that there are only three words one should say: 'wow, how and why'.

According to Muhammad, it takes immense concentration and attention while working on each piece. "Every art piece takes around 10 to 12 days to be completed because it also needs composition and colours."

Pointing towards a colourful gold leaf artwork, he said that this beautiful piece was formed after experimenting a lot with gold leaf and silver leaf. "Analysing his work in a picture will be injustice to his diligence," said Mudassar Manzoor, a senior artist present at the opening.

Muhammad's teacher, Abdul Jabbar Jull, appreciated his perseverance and patience in creating the intricately designed works. "Working for 22 hours without a fan or an air conditioner with a large bulb hanging just on your head is not an easy situation to work in," said gallery owner Abid Merchant about the way Muhammad works with the tiny paper cuttings. "But perfection needs such hardships."

Published in The Express Tribune, January 19^th, 2015.