The VM Gallery, Karachi, exhibition, ‘Items of dual use’ is a part of a thesis project designed and curated by Waheeda Baloch, who is currently doing her masters in curatorial studies at Stockholm University, Sweden. Comprising two Swedish and two Pakistani artists, Lina Persson and Henrik Andersson, and Ayesha Jatoi and Muzzumil Raheel, the show critiques objects and processes containing detrimental agendas underneath their pro humanity façade.

What is the purpose of this exhibition: to highlight the semiotics of images, to prompt audiences to have a deeper engagement with art, or to establish a comonality of approaches between the Pakistani and Swedish artists?

Of course, semiotic study was a part of understanding and bringing works together with the common approach, meaning and their nature. This question takes me to the purpose of art making and sharing; curators make concepts, assemble works to make a narrative and this accumulation can only be a result of creative thought process.

Sol LeWitt, one of the foremost exponents of minimalism and conceptualism of the ’60s, says that in conceptual art the ‘idea’ is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist makes concept-based art, the work is preplanned and its execution is a perfunctory affair. The idea becomes a machine that makes the art. Similarly for me, this exhibition is the end product of that process.

Bringing this exhibition to Pakistan was a part of the art production— Andersson’s video was to be recorded here, his Pakistani manufactured Swedish army shirt as art object had to travel back to its origin to be shown and shared with people in Pakistan and I thought it would be interesting for people to see how things are connected to each other. The commonality of thought is another aspect; normally we only hear the voices from our own region, but this time I tried to develop a collective voice with global nature of art.

How did you shortlist the four artists for this show—what were the various elements in their independent art practices that you were able to link together?

In my search for artists in Pakistan and Sweden, I inquired from friends, visited studios, discussed art practices and read a lot. Anneli Backman, curator at Wip:Konsthall, my exhibition tutor connected me to Andersson because she knew my prior concern to work with an artist to establish a link between the two countries Sweden and Pakistan.

Andersson’s previous work, ‘If it is not love then it is the bomb that will bring us together’ was a sound piece created by transformation of the seismic recording of nuclear explosion done by Pakistan in 1998.

This was the opening for me to develop this project—the link he found between the two countries was the arms trade and he criticises the Swedish Arms Business under the slogan of the term, ‘Items of dual use’. Andersson had worked as drafted serviceman in the army during 1993 and during that time he wore a ‘made in Pakistan’ army shirt which became part of his artwork as it was an ‘Item of dual use’.

There was a need to bring a Pakistani voice with similar concerns; Jatoi is a practising miniaturist but her video performance piece, ‘Clothesline,’ in which she hangs her domestic washing (coloured red) on a fighter jet monument in China Square in Lahore, fitted into the concept perfectly. This performance recording Jatoi’s strong disapproval of power play and protest against the existing culture of weapons and their use within the society compliments Andersson’s ‘Items of dual use’ with a green Swedish Army shirt.

I met Lina Persson at IASPIS Stockholm; her works attracted my attention because of their political nature corresponding with issues that are broadly based on study of East v/s West. Her work, ‘The spilled milk of haunted nations’ brought together different aspects of performativity, the idolatrous, the executing power of computer code, and concerns for ethical journalism. Her Calligrams are connected to the study of Judith Butler’s theory of Performativity.

Surprisingly, I saw the works by Raheel whose concerns were same as Persson’s. He produced a new body of work for the exhibition where he constructs imagery with the calligraphic forms creating strong historical links with national power symbols and politics. His works contain both aspects presented in Jatoi’s and Persson’s works.

How do you perceive the role of a curator here, especially with regard to the local viewership whose understanding of conceptual or theoretical art is nonexistent?

Audiences everywhere in the world are almost the same—unaware of conceptual or theoretical aspects of art which need understanding. Ways of presenting art to the public is different in the West and that makes it comprehensible and easy for masses. The work of a curator is to play the role of mediator between art and audience, to interpret it to the various groups of viewers. Curator is a kind of art educator and it is very important to bring this approach in the existing curating practice in Pakistan.

Do you think our artists should follow western theoretical models per se—or question their validity to our cultural environment?

Art is now global and so are the artists’ concerns. Research and multidisciplinary approach in art is dominating. Artists now share a lot which is common between the West and the East. We cannot limit them in a frame of western or eastern theoretical models. Artists get inspiration and take what they want from any area of knowledge and discipline as per their concerns and practice.