In his latest solo show at the Canvas Gallery in Karachi, Adeel uz Zafar looks at symbiotic relationships between various binary forces, setting them up against each other in order to compel the audience to contemplate their dualities. Curated by Zarminé Shah, “Binary” takes a look at the double, the co-existing concepts and visuals which may at times be at odds with one another despite their similar nature. The work has emerged as a result of Zafar’s musings about cultural appendages during a residency in Sydney two years ago, and slowly evolved during discussions with Shah into interplay of dualities.

One may argue that Zafar’s work has always existed in the binary, with a certain affinity to contradictions. However, in this particular body of work the binary is omnipresent and is used to comment on gender, art history, politics and pop culture. The show itself is divided into two series — one, the artist’s signature large gauze-wrapped pieces, and another series of more directly representational drawing duos intricately framed and presented as diptychs in varying sizes.

While the wrapped and hidden “stuffed toys” in the larger pieces are an extension of his previous works, here we see his ideas evolving, much as the forms within the gauze mutate, multiply and conjoin to add another layer of ambiguity as we try to make sense of what lies beneath. The unsettling shapes seem to resemble unnaturally fused doubles (or even multiples) forming a new and independent body, yet the original components still retain their identity.

“Binary” is Adeel uz Zafar’s exploration of attempts to reconcile our differences

This is most apparent in “Drawing Appendage — Conjunctive Symbiosis” series. In other pieces, the binary exists in the way the piece has been displayed, such as “Drawing Appendage — Untitled (Diptych)” which is a huge piece that is cut in two, twisted around and joined back together in a corner, forming an uncomfortably dislocated body.

The smaller diptychs are more directly concerned with finding similarities in opposites, or perhaps differences in the similar. These objects, characters and situations are analogous yet lie on opposite poles in certain aspects. In “Iconic Masks”, we have two masked villainous characters, Darth Vader and Guy Fawkes, but while one is a fictional masked character whose evil is absolute, the other represents a historical icon who may be an evil terrorist or a revolutionary symbol depending on which side of history you are on. Similarly, we see parallels drawn between King Kong and Godzilla as fictional monsters, pop cultural icons and symbols of aggression and destruction, as well as opponents in a cultural and political power struggle (the American King Kong and Japanese Godzilla).

However, “After Aphrodite / After David”, two larger pieces in this series placed facing each other depicting the iconic historical sculptures, “Aphrodite of Syracuse” and “David” by Michelangelo — addresses the idea of the binary gender in the context of art history. There is a contrast in the way the male and the female nudes are portrayed; while David stands upright and confident in a kind of celebration of the strong confident male form, Aphrodite exudes self-conscious feminine beauty, cowering from the viewer’s gaze.

One may argue that Zafar’s work has always existed in the binary, with a certain affinity to contradictions. However, in this particular body of work the binary is omnipresent and is used to comment on gender, art history, politics and pop culture.

Zafar again plays with the concept of concealment by questioning how we hide our bodies, as he covers the unapologetically exposed David with a metal fig leaf. While it raises questions of modesty, it also serves to apply (almost) the same reservations to both genders. The incomplete “After David” was finished during the opening of the show in a performance by the artist, which brings our attention to the technique itself and how it is akin to the act of sculpting, but on a 2D surface instead.

What is most intriguing about the show is that the concept of the binary permeates each aspect and every level, from the visual imagery and display to the concept. At the heart of it, “Binary” is an attempt to bring together seemingly different, even contradictory forces and form something more valuable and more sublime, be it culture, gender, histories, or political or religious ideologies. As such, the show can be read as an attempt to search for ways to unite a world that is rife with racist, bigoted and misogynistic rhetoric in the current global political climate.

“Binary” was shown at the Canvas Gallery, Karachi from November 2 to November 10, 2016

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, November 27th, 2016