At the recently-held Karachi Literary Festival, a panel discussion titled, the ‘Art of writing’ raised interesting observations on the ‘form’ of writing on art. Among the many issues that relate to our practice, some of us identified the necessity of locating the meaning of art (work) outside what was visibly apparent in the work, and to initiate discussion on factors that may be related to the artist’s process, to his or her social or historical context; to speak around the work, away from the descriptive; a shift away from reportage into a discussion on the nature of art.

The counter argument was that art writing needed to be simpler and straightforward, to inform, so that the non-art reader, the collector would be able to understand and ‘appreciate’ the work. If the role of art is to inspire, provoke, protest, beautify, deconstruct, build, or not, one thing is for sure: art writing must respond to the art in more ways than one, which may not be as simplistic as describing the object or the image within. The art describes itself, the writing converses with it.

The solo show of Lahore-based artist Ayaz Jokhio, simply titled Ayaz Jokhio, this month, at the Canvas Gallery, Karachi, resonates and relates directly to this discussion. The artist’s show comprises very few paintings, and what may provoke or be a pun on the viewership of art (the critic and the collector included), each painting is installed as if it is cut, or the rest of it is missing or concealed; as if it exists elsewhere. In completing his work to show an incomplete image, one can be sure that the artist is referring to the imagery as well as ideas outside the physical frame. He is deconstructing not only the object (the painting), but alluding to the incompleteness of what is visible in a painting. By extension, his art seeks alternate routes, which are clearly not complete in the exclusivity of the art gallery.

Ayaz Jokhio’s art alludes that the critical knowledge and aesthetics of art may be located outside the ‘frame’ of the gallery and academic concerns

The gallery as a physical space becomes part of the art. And that is the most direct and confrontational gesture of Jokhio, where the exaggerated frames mock the elitism of drawing room or museum art, and its appropriation; the real conversation seems to be between the large expanse of the bare white walls of the gallery and the minimal work. How does the artist weave together the space and work, that the spaces in between the work become centre stage? Works such as ‘Sunset’ and ‘Taj Mahal’ jut out of the wall making it appear that the rest of the image / painting may be inside it. The artist provokes the viewer and the critic, and in doing so, he presents his own critique of what art may be.

The painting ‘Karachi 430 kms’ is as complete or incomplete as it will get, but it signifies a multi-layered narrative. First, the painting that is framed on three sides with a thick frame, is left unframed, and just like the elaborate frame of the work ‘Mughal king’, the frame is the subject; a stark gesture that speaks on censorship and jargon in art. Jokhio speaks about his interest in Sindhi and Urdu poetry such as of Jon Elia that informs his creativity. The image is but one aspect of it.

Jokhio seems to enjoy playing with illusion as he paints a stereotypical sunset scene or a road; generic imagery, that is informed by mass media, and the art of reproduction. He could have portrayed the same with a digital transfer, but instead, painstakingly re-creates by painting the minutest detail, copying from a photograph. Just like his frame, his process subverts the conventional notion of picture-making, illusion and art viewership.

The more significant point would be that Jokhio does not paint these images and exhibit them on the pavement or the framing shop, but instead brings that discussion to the gallery. If there is a sense of déjà-vu in his imagery, there is an equal awareness of re-visiting a question much discussed in the art of Europe and North America. The question of what Art is may not be new, but Jokhio’s intervention reminds us that the critical discourse on such questions remains unanswered in the local context, as he also hints at the hollowness of the art market.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, February 21st, 2016