KARACHI: Philosophers and linguists such as Michel Foucault and Noam Chomsky have given a great deal of attention to the role that language plays in both asserting power and gathering perceptual information in our lives. It is an endless debate. Artists look at it in several ways, one of which is to decipher its visual representation in daily routines. An exhibition of Ghulam Mohammad’s artworks titled Tamaam that is under way at the Canvas Art Gallery focuses on language as a visual entity in a world full of meaning.

To elucidate things, let’s first replace language with ‘text’ because this is where its visibility becomes apparent and open to interpretation. The script that the artist has chosen belongs to Eastern cultures. This implies an innate sense of spirituality in the whole exercise.

Does Ghulam see it this way? He says, “As a performing phenomenon, language operates on both individualistic and communal planes, situating the individual in a particular context and growing the vocabulary of that language around the individual. When multiplied, the interactions of these various contexts, individuated habits with respect to language can, at times understandably, be overwhelming.”

The various contexts that the artist is referring to have basically to do with the episodic nature of our existence that add up to become experiences. It all begins with a piece called ‘Tasalsul’ (pen and ink on archival paper and paper collage on wasli). Tasalsul means continuity, and looking at the delicate effort that has gone into the making of the beautiful artwork with a geometric symbol and shades of gray the viewer may harbour the notion that the fine text in it indicates the never-ending, truth-seeking aspect of the cosmos.

But as one moves on, exhibits such as ‘La Mutanahi’ (infinite) and ‘Guft-o-Shuneed’ (negotiations or conversations) enable the viewer to realise that Ghulam is actually alluding to very basic things which are associated with all of us –– and the way text turns into language and language transforms us as human beings. Therefore the written and the oral are as much part of flesh and blood as thoughts and ideas … even if they seem tamaam.

The exhibition concludes on March 12.

Published in Dawn, March 8th, 2020