KARACHI: It is interesting how modern-day artists use memory as their subject matter. Some use it as their connection to the past with a strong feeling of nostalgia, while others use it to touch upon the historicity of certain things that they would like to rectify.

In his latest exhibition of artworks titled Mind Maps at the Canvas Art Gallery, Muhammad Atif Khan does a bit of both. However, the yearning to return, in his case, seems to take precedence over the desire to rectify.

Although there are single pieces on display in the gallery, Khan by and large tells his story with the help of series of artworks.

The first one ‘Nahr Wala Pull’ (archival inkjet print on Hahnemuhle paper) which has two exhibits, is a giveaway in terms of the artist’s thought process. Obviously there’s a cultural nuance here, which also reminds the viewer of a film song (but that’s beside the point).

The image that Khan comes up with is replete with references where culture and history conflate.

There is a bicycle, but the person who is riding it appears to be from an age that belies his bicycle-riding.

But then the aesthetics of it all — the birds, the flowers, the bridge — come together as an endearing frozen moment in time.

‘Celebration’, ‘Mind Map’ and ‘You Are Here’ are other series. Among them, it is ‘Mind Map’, perhaps rightly so, that allows the viewer to get a better understanding of what the artist is trying to achieve.

Its second exhibit has clear mythological references.

The creatures in it are readily identifiable, so the viewer will immediately try and find their mythological significance from different texts.

But the man on top of them all is not a mythological being; he is someone from the Mughal era. And the juxtaposition of documented and imagined histories is what the artist has done well in order to make the lines on the maps of his mind more vivid and pronounced.

The exhibition concludes on May 17.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2018