This week You! takes a look at a recent exhibition held at Koel Gallery, Karachi...
art
This week You! takes a look at a recent exhibition held at Koel Gallery, Karachi...
Exhibition ‘Drawn to Form II: Marking New Spaces’ has recently been curated by Aziz Sohail at Koel Gallery, Karachi. The exhibition has been organised in continuation of its 2015 episode ‘Drawn to Form: The Matter in Hand’ by Abdullah M.I. Syed in collaboration with Meeren Eason in Sydney. ‘Marking New Spaces’ is based on the works of various artists including Abdullah M.I Syed, Ali Kazim, Naima Dadabhoy, Noor Ali Chagani and Sadia Salim.
The display comprises the art of ceramics and drawing which is intended to convey the culture and heritage of Pakistan. “In 2015, I co-curated ‘Drawn to Form: The Matter in Hand’ in Sydney with Esson, who is a renowned Australian artist and the former Head of Ceramics at the National Art School in Sydney.
It was a glorious challenge to explore the relationship between ceramics and drawing, speculating an aesthetic synergy between processes, materials, subject matter and forms. Critically looking at Garth Clark’s vision of Fortress Ceramica as a ‘beautiful ruin’, an institution where a complacent ceramic practice fixates on principles of beauty and craft tradition.
We argued that such ideas historically resonate in another area of the visual arts - drawing, however drawing has changed and developed through history and managed to assert itself as a satisfying medium of self-expression and storytelling,” says Abdullah M.I Syed while explaining the concept behind his first installation in Sydney.
Syed was contacted by Aziz Sohail who wished to exhibit this thought through its second installation in Karachi. However, the artist was quite sceptical about its reception in Pakistan. But somehow, he was tempted to expand its reach and make it work beyond boundaries. “We are delighted to see that the young and emerging curator Aziz Sohail has intelligently and beautifully woven such conversations in ‘Drawn to From-II’ with utmost passion, understanding and creativity. I thank him for inviting me to be part of this ongoing discussion in a new location and context and rising to the monumental challenge of discovering, commissioning and presenting diverse approaches to contemporary ceramics and drawing practices by Pakistani artists,” adds Syed.
Ceramics certainly have a storied and long history in both the wider Indian subcontinent and specifically in Pakistan both in terms of heritage and the contemporary. In contrast, drawing, which has existed also as part of this craft tradition has emerged as a strong medium in modern and contemporary art in Pakistan as showcased through the practices of artists such as Karachi-based Nasreen Mohamedi, Lala Rukh and Zahoor Ul Akhlaq in the past.
Syed further shares that globally, ceramics, which have long been sidelined and marginalised, are suddenly seeing a new rise and acceptance in both the realm of art as well as craft. A Google search highlights a slew of news articles such as one at the ‘The Guardian’, published on April 2018, with the headline ‘Top of the Pots; the smashing rise of Ceramics’. They are approaching the status of drawing, which has long been a strong force in museum exhibitions, research and study.
Keeping these ideas in mind, a diverse group of artists were invited to take the dialogue of ‘Drawn to Form’ further in its current iteration at Koel Gallery. While the practitioners bring varied concerns in their work, in the past they have been inspired by the formal concerns of drawing and ceramics.
Thus, it is intriguing to form strong relationships between each, especially how much they lived the environment, becomes a means of inspiration and commentary of them - in this the artists share concerns around ecologies, history and their surrounding landscape which is evident in their final body of work.
The exhibition is still on till 2nd August, 2018, so mark your presence to witness some of the finest works by these Pakistani artists.
— You! desk
