Pushing the boundaries of contemporary drawing
Drawing is like making an expressive gesture with the advantage of permanence,” the French fauvist Henri Matisse once aptly put it. Sure enough, drawing has slowly evolved from being a brainstorming tool or a precursor to more ‘proper’ mediums, to its contemporary form — where it is a medium of expression in and of itself. It is no longer just a linear representation in pencil on paper, but a means to lend raw ideas a physical manifestation through the most expressive materials possible.
The premise of the show, “What is Seen and Not Seen with or Without Seeing” at Gandhara Art-Space in Karachi, thus allows us to explore some exciting works that push the boundaries of the medium and emancipate it from its reputation as a preparatory exercise. As the curator, Haajra Haider Karrar, explains in her note, “[the show] is a subjective survey of drawing as a reflective process which extends beyond sensory perception. It reviews the trajectory of an idea as it transforms from ‘being’ into ‘becoming’ (visual / physical manifestation of the idea), the transformation of the intangible into tangible, irrespective of the tools utilised to aid this process.”
A curated group show follows the evolution of drawing as an independent medium of artistic
expression through the works of different artists
The works on display may not fit into your dictionary definition of ‘drawing’ but rather encapsulate its essence, as they are the visual iterations of a thought —an idea being negotiated and resolved — and carrying with it an expressive spontaneity. Drawing then becomes the primary medium, while at the same time acting as a cognitive release on the path to perceptual clarity which, in a lot of cases, leads to abstraction. As Muhammad Ali Talpur puts it, “When the string gets entangled, you hold a single end and follow its unravelling. This is perhaps what happens each time, in the act of drawing for me.”
Similarly, Hammad Gillani’s minimalist vasli pieces condense his concepts into pseudo-gestural mark-making to indicate the humble beginnings of destructive extremist social behaviours, which are again a shift from his previous works inclined towards hyper-realism.
Ali Kazim dilutes his representational explorations of identity into a formal study of special relationships upon multiple layers of translucent paper. The display and abstracted form reads as transitional period catering to deeper understanding of concepts and maturation of thought.
Noor Ali Chagani’s abstracted minimalism enters the 3D realm; his miniature concrete blocks placed in a grid mimic the grey building structures of Karachi reflecting social and capitalist structures that cage the middle-class male.
Adeel uz Zafar moves from his signature subtractive technique and plays with his display to further drive home the concepts on duality inherent in his works. He lays his two pieces out like an open book, akin to a holy scripture, accompanied by sounds of scraping, taking drawing from 3D to 4D.