‘The process determines the final outcome’

Exhibition featuring work of 10 artists underway in city

LAHORE: “Geometric shapes have great significance in Islamic art,” Curator Aamna Hussain said on Tuesday.

She was speaking at the first day of Built-in—an exhibition featuring the work of 10 artists at Alhamra on The Mall. Hussain said she had put together the work of artists who drew heavily from geometry. “Geometric shapes have great significance in Islamic art and are an integral part of modern art,” Hussain said.

National College of Arts (NCA) graduate Mina Arham told The Express Tribune her work depicted unplanned urbanisation. Arham’s work features a series of prints made on the same print. She etched more details on the plate with every new print in an effort to portray a city getting overcrowded with the passage of time. Arham said each new line etched on the plate cannot be erased just like the unplanned growth of an urban conglomeration.

Artist Sadia Farooq said her work was about self-exploration and spirituality. Farooq said as a miniaturist she had always enjoyed exploring images from various perspectives. One of her works features small marble sculptures which come across as envelopes. She said the work was inspired by the notes she had written to herself as a means of self-exploration. Another work by Farooq features spirals made out of square blocks.

Umer Nawaz, another artist, said his work was about the physical manipulation of material. “It is the process that determines the final outcome,” he said. His work features a cracked cylindrical metal structure.

Minahil Hafeez, another artist, who employed small lines and circles to create one overarching pattern in her work, said the piece represented order in peoples’ lives. “Everyone has a set routine and pattern,” she said while talking about the work which appears to be a series of chaotic lines when viewed at close quarters and comes across as a pattern when viewed from afar. Hafeez said the piece was her representation of life, which might come across as being chaotic while it is actually a series of patterns.

The exhibition also features the work of Sarwat Rana, Manisha Jiani, Ghulam Hussain Guddu, Abbas Ali, Moattar Zafar and Sajjad Ali Talpur. It will conclude on June 5.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 27^th, 2015.