In a neighbourhood in Clifton, dubbed Karachi’s own ‘Chelsea’, is a burgeoning centre of art galleries and eclectic cafes, fashioned on the quintessence of artistic discourse. Young but ambitious, they showcase art and foster a modest, but dedicated band of art enthusiasts. One such gallery, the Canvas Gallery, Karachi, recently hosted the Amin Gulgee show ‘Washed Upon the Shore’, curated by Zarmeene Shah, featuring sculpture, installation and performance.

In contrast, the pair’s 2015 collaboration, ’Dreamscape’, at the Amin Gulgee Gallery, was a societal affair. Very well attended, and not just by the artistically inclined, ‘Dreamscape’ was a jam-packed, sparkling affair, where innovative and highly personal performances were almost sidelined by the overwhelming number of attendees and their vociferous enthusiasm.

Most notable was a middle-aged spectator who would confidently proclaim to anyone willing to listen, that “the unpleasant fact of the matter was that everything that had been catapulted into contemporary artistic celebrity was, at best, mediocre”. Therefore when Zarmeene and Amin teamed up recently, this time as curator and artist respectively, my interest was piqued; admittedly though, to be witness to the exhibit’s social implications more than their artistic counterparts.

Amin Gulgee’s most impressive quality is his ability to merge the art with the viewer

Once I was able to let go of my preconceived mien of Gulgee’s aura, his work felt authentic, bracing and even, on occasion (especially when considering and contrasting his three ‘moons’ with his ‘Garden triptych’), empyrean. His hollow half moons, ‘Amber moon’ and ‘Green moon’, massive copper and glass creations, were suspended from the ceiling, facing each other in a discourse that expanded and altered to allow for their shifting narrative, competition and lofty coexistence. Ominous due to their size but vulnerable in their expression, these moons (along with a third, all metal moon mounted on a nearby wall) formed the pivotal centre of this gallery experience and the physical space. Together, the three moons formed a triumvirate, keenly expressing ongoing internal / external debate within themselves and exuding a gravitational pull that could be felt throughout the gallery.

This division of threes, alluding to the divine, is a carefully calculated and poignant repetition used to curate other sculpture and installation pieces. The three empty eggs, made entirely in copper and mounted on a wall are contrary: symbols of fecund life but models of fossilised incarnations. Their harsh, tactile surface and cracked facade evoke complex narratives of gender, sexuality and resulting annihilation of nature’s intuitive process. The fragile thing contained is missing, perhaps ravaged; and the aftermath, contained within the brazen copper shell, appears calm to a frightening degree. The ‘Garden triptych’, influenced by Hieronymus Bosch’s surrealist ‘Garden of earthly delights’ amalgamates concepts of the moons and the eggs, and reinforces concepts of a universe in insatiable flux.

‘Washed upon the Shore’ is not a pastiche of Gulgee’s previous work, it is a progression. The show’s most impressive quality is its ability to merge together the art, with the viewer. Guests standing next to the installations became a part of the pieces. The shifting viewers behind the amber and green translucent glass of the moons created a very believable, uniform disorder that requires a rare discipline.

Unfortunately, I didn’t run into the middle aged, nihilist, faux-critical rhetoric spewing gentleman at Canvas, but I’m sure that even he would have appreciated the show that evolved to create a large, living, meta installation, proving the falsity of the dichotomy between art and observer.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, January 10th, 2016