KARACHI: Existentialists believe that man is the sum total of the choices that he makes in his life or responsible for his choices. This idea essentially stems from the fact that we are what our freedom creates. So the self of a person can be described as what a man does and who he is.

A two-person show titled ‘Self-Extended’ that opened at the Koel Art Gallery on Thursday investigates the subject with specificity in terms of objects that one gets to use, see and be around on a regular basis.

The artists that are taking part in the exhibition – Abid Aslam and Affan Baghpati – have established credentials. They are known for pushing boundaries vis-à-vis subject matter in their respective art practices. And perhaps this is what the curator of the show, Irfan Gul Dahri, is tapping into. He says: “What is a person without the things they project their selves into? What would you be without the set of objects that make up your lifestyle: Your books? Your paintings? Your favourite mug or your preferred chair in the TV room? And looking at it from the other side, is Manu not identical for us with the book of his laws or Monet with the body of his work? We extend ourselves into things, and we expend part of our substance into them, because things pick up significations and personalities. My grandfather’s watch or my mother’s wedding dress carry some sense of their persons about them. While pointing to a painting in your house, I ask ‘what is that?’ you reply ‘that is Irfan Gul’, and this is a meaningful exchange that surprises no one and all can understand…”

This is an interesting way of looking at ‘things’. Basically, it is an act of personification of everyday objects. To personify is to anthropomorphise. The line between a living being and a nonliving being gets blurred. Affan’s ‘Slip and Fly’ (assemblage, found objects, brass alloy, copper, polymer) and Abid’s ‘On the Beat’ (punching on golden and silver reflective paper, gel pen with gold leaf on wasli) are a testimony to the claim. Both differ in size and technique, but primarily they, with aesthetic grace, talk of an extension of the self as a verb, not a noun.

The exhibition concludes on Nov 10.

Published in Dawn, October 29th, 2021