n Italo Calvino’s book of fiction, Invisible Cities, Marco Polo fabricates details of imaginary, impossible, magical cities for his host Kublai Khan, the ruler of China; “but gradually it becomes clear that he is actually describing one city: Venice”. Anusha Ramchand Novlani has created segments of cities, based on places of worship of various faiths and other historic facades, but all of these are about one metropolis, Karachi, or one country, Pakistan.

At her solo show, Seven Billion Beliefs, (March 29-April 7) chunks of temples, gurdwaras, mosques, churches were constructed and covered in grey paint, with top parts/domes layered in gold leaf. Seeing these sections of buildings which in reality are large enough to house many believers – condensed within a gallery room was a strange and irresistible site, because what has always been outside, huge and high, was brought inside a display space. However, it did not seem odd, because the exterior of Canvas Gallery is grey, so the grey artworks complemented the building, besides creating a link between two places of worship.

In the Western world, with religion becoming a private matter, and often not important/present in many citizens’ lives, art galleries and museums have almost emerged as a new venue of worship. Instead of going to church on Sunday morning, many individuals and families visit art museum in their Sunday best. They also keep a respectable silence inside the exhibition halls, and some ardently listen to description on the artworks – like sermons. The connection between religion and art is ancient, and even if in a society making images and adorning them in religious premises is not permitted, human beings have expressed their aesthetic sense in erecting their places of worship. The architecture of cathedrals, mosques, temples and other holy structures is an example of paying homage to a divine entity in the language of beauty. In small villages of Pakistan, you come across a dozen or so mud/stone/thatched abodes, roughly shaped, usually depilated, but the single mosque, or church stands apart. In its colour, design and decoration. You can spot the house of God miles away.

Anusha Ramchand Novlani recognises this aspect of our personal and social life, and has created portions of religious buildings on receiving Vasl-KKAF Research Grant, after being chosen from 13^th Taaza Tareen Residency. Fabrication and details of her sculptures are so impressive that one gets the feeling of being in the presence of a holy structure. One also recognises the multiplicity of faiths. All of her sources are from various locations in the Islamic Republic, confirming and reminding us that we are part of a diverse community, in which Catholics, Protestants, Hindus, Sikhs, Parsees and several sects of Muslims have been living side by side. A fact frequently neglected in our behaviour, conversation and patriotism.

Interestingly, if there is a difference in faith, all systems of beliefs have one thing in common: masculinity. Majority of prophets were men. Popes, muftis, mullahs, pundits, priests, gurus are always men. Religious practice is a male dominated domain. (In our diction God is referred to with male pronouns, in spite of the belief that He is above the demarcation). The works of Novlani, by collecting samples of several faiths, allude to that dimension. Her choice of slicing certain components of religious buildings and then recreating them as objects of desire (there is no other object of desire than art!) perhaps is a comment on that male-dominated world.

Walking along a minaret, top of a temple, tower of a church one experiences going through a haunted and hollow city (her shell-like sculptures are executed in wood and HDF). A display of the power of these religious symbols. But even if you are sitting in your living room, you are reminded of these establishments through azan, tower bells, hymns, bhajans, or chants on loudspeakers. Upper parts of mosques, of Sikh temples, of churches, and of Hindu temples – all collected from Karachi – confirm how sacred sentiments, sounds, messages reach to public through these elevated edifices, as well as every religious building trying to turn into a Tower of Babel – reaching God.

Places of worship are embodiments of history, tradition, devotion and perfection, yet each is recognised by its colour, surface treatment, inscription, patterns, writing. In Anusha Ramchand’s work all of these become one. Having their distinct features of faith, these were daubed in grey Deco paint. Thus, pointing to the anatomy of diverse or opposing beliefs being the same – like the skeletons of soldiers fighting each other on the borders of conflicting nations, say Ukraine and Russia, are identical. In a sense, Novlani has produced this Unity of Differences (title of some of her works).

Though the works are big – large enough to be meeting the gallery ceiling in their surge to touch the sky – these also look like small trinkets, collectable items you pick on your annual holiday; Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, Sagrada Familia, Taj Mahal, Golden Temple. You can also buy their replicas in your own town. Novlani has made other models too: of colonial constructions in Karachi, including Merewether Clock Tower, another structure with the Star of David as its central motif, and some unnameable facades of heritage buildings. These crusts of old sites (harking back to a forgotten history) are also joined by maquettes of some secular buildings. Habib Bank Plaza, and Bahria Icon Tower rub shoulders next to colonial and religious establishments. Only to remind us that commerce has become a new, viable, visible and vital creed for our times.

Novlani’s work is significant for another aspect. Because today, apart from any other identities, it is the religious identity that reigns supreme in many parts of world and the ports of entry. She displays these symbols – or slices of religious connotation as artworks – to be priced and sold. Perhaps the artist did not intend, but the work suggests transaction between faith and cash. Buying rosary beads in Mecca, icons in Vatican, idols in Varanasi, amulets in Tibet, all manufactured in the factories of Communist China, denote the essence of human psyche that converts prophet into profit. Religion in many instances becomes centre of big revenues, taxes, fiefs and cash offerings.

For a number of artists, skill, craft and rendering are important, but Anusha Ramchand Novlani’s case, these are crucial. Her fabrication of artworks is immaculate, so much so that one is deluded in differentiating between reality and reproduction. In any instance a place of worship or an icon/idol representing image of divinity is a metaphor that refers to sublime (origin) and mundane (human craft). The essence of religion is a dialogue between this and the other world, between material and the spiritual, between image and the reality.

Anusha Racmchand Novlani’s work takes another step/stop in that metaphysical transaction. She has dealt with many faiths in her art practice, suggesting that inherently all beliefs are manifestations of a single being/entity. Her work, displayed at Canvas Gallery, was a great visual experience, but more than that it was a rare occasion to find all, diverse and disagreeing faiths in one room, convincingly constructed and comfortably connected.

The author is an art critic based in Lahore.