This week You! takes a look at the multi-disciplinary exhibition by Asad Kamran recently held at Koel Gallery in Karachi...
exhibition
This week You! takes a look at the multi-disciplinary exhibition by Asad Kamran recently held at Koel Gallery in Karachi...
Artists are historians and their art is like history journals. Undeniably, art is not only an expression of beauty and creativity; it is also a reflection of society and a particular era. This is also the main reason why art is an ever changing medium. The evolution of art is manifested in all its forms. Standard and cultural change is evident from the world of music, dance and stage performances to the visual forms including sculptures and paintings.
A piece of art is a reflection of the artist. It represents his beliefs, outlook, emotion and passion. It also represents what his opinions for the current society and its people are.
Keeping this in mind, Asad Kamran, an architect and a painter, recently showcased his artistic work at Alliance Francaise. Asad draws inspiration from the juxtapositions that make up modern day life. His processes are instinctive, impulsive, and multi-disciplinary. Observing society, his work often becomes a form of criticism of what surrounds him.
Having had shows in Pakistan, Istanbul, Turkey, Edinburgh and UK, his works have been described as ‘intuitive, gestural, and whimsical’. His latest show ‘Our Twisted Future’ is a jab on the tired-ness of noisy, modern-day culture. He attempts to dissect what it means to exist within a society full of contradictions.
This multi-disciplinary exhibition is his attempt to utilise art as a tool for social commentary, in his own right. Asad’s first group show was held at the Koel Gallery in 2013.
“It was sold out and that was a humbling yet exciting start,” shares Asad.
Talking about his current exhibition, Asad elaborates, “This collection was an experiment. It was born out of the frenzy of the now. The paintings were displayed in conjunction with soundscapes performed by DJ duo SYNR (Saad Memon and Haider Rizvi.) The art had a mixed medium with some works playing with layers of text, political imagery and social media snapshots and projections.”
Of his entire collection, the one titled: ‘We don’t care for the image’, is Asad’s favourite. “It is because; it’s such an obvious paradoxical explanation of an idea of the image. An image which may seem to mean something but is usually nothing more than it is.
It also very appropriately sums up the fervour of a somewhat historic General Elections 2018, which makes the essence of the painting extremely tangible.”
Asad is actually trying to convey a message through his paintings for which he informs, “I am just raising questions that keep me agitated and going. The work I produce is a result of the contradictions, the superficiality, the eccentricity, the instant-ness and the noise we face as urban globalised individuals experience today.”
As mentioned earlier, the exhibit also hosted live soundscapes by SYNR. Hailing from Washington, USA, and having played in Baku, Tbilisi and North America, they attempt to experiment and test the limits of audio and visual art.
The creation of soundscapes is an experiment to interpret an art form that hinges on the symbiosis between the meaning behind a paint stroke and a sound wave.
