The artist Farrukh Adnan was born in Mian Chunnu in Punjab a year after the Partition. In a collection of his work recently exhibited at the Chawkandi gallery in Karachi titled ‘The Past Is Another Country’, Adnan hopes to reconnect with a past long, long forgotten.

This isn’t just him delving into the memories of his childhood, but the memory of his people; his connection to the land that goes back generations.

In ‘The Past Is Another Country’, Adnan attempts to reconnect with and express his “memories” of his historically significant hometown called Tulamba, located in Punjab.

The location in question has a history that dates back to the second century BC. Archaeologists discovered remnants of an important settlement that once existed there. They uncovered Harrapa-era mud-brick architecture which is not protected and therefore has been removed, piece by piece, by local villagers as they open up the land for further use.

Farrukh Adnan tries to recreate the lost history of his hometown

So, it’s a past that’s also fast vanishing. Adnan finds traces of what once was and expresses those through his artwork.

“Archaeology allows a connection with the current situation in most of today’s world and serves as the foundation for my work, exploring the aspects which shift from memory to symbols,” says the artist. “And memory serves to carve and create an independent narrative of time and place. The aim of my art practice, with regards to the research, remains psycho-geographical, while the spiritual element has shifted from memory to symbols.”

One half of the exhibition showed works by the artist created with pen and ink wash on paper, each piece only slightly different from the other. The treatment reminded one of how memory emerges and fades, as there was an element of intentional blurriness in the art pieces, as if to consistently keep concealed what memory was so desperately trying to uncover. It is the past, but just about out of reach.

Adnan painstakingly researched, collected and documented what remained on site. He walked through the ruined landscape and photographed what remained in an effort to preserve and recorded sound, as if to capture the ‘spirit’ of the place. He did all of this completely alone with the utmost meticulousness, yet in a poetic form and with immense patience.

Pivot Glimpse-I and II, pen and ink on archival paper, appeared to be the artist drawing from a memory, a hazy image of a well. This one was incredibly detailed in how the lines of the bricks and mud came together, yet remained somewhat blurry — because, after all, it is a memory being depicted here.

Sounds from the Landscape series, pen and ink wash and oxidised silver leaf on canvas, was a painstakingly detailed series that look like ancient, blurry photos from the first pin-hole cameras. They looked like a cross between a painting and a photograph of a scenery that one couldn’t help but strain one’s eyes to capture, but which remained somewhat out of reach. Much like the nearly lost history of Tulamba.

‘The Past Is Another Country’ was exhibited at the Chawkandi Art Gallery, Karachi, from December 22, 2022-January 2, 2023

Published in Dawn, EOS, January 29th, 2023