Omen begins at Full Circle
KARACHI: Though the word omen does not necessarily have negative connotations, in our society it’s often taken as a warning sign. Looking at an exhibition of Babar Moghal’s artworks titled Omen, which commenced at the Full Circle Gallery on Thursday, you get the feeling that the artist, too, does not take it as a positive indicator.
But then you have to try to come to grips with the world that he has created. It is not the world we, physically, live in. It is something that exists in our subconscious, and perhaps we know it unconsciously as well. No matter how much we shy away from it, we can never deny that that particular dunia has a presence.
Moghal makes his intention clear at the outset with ‘Lords of Necropolis’ (oil on board). The necropolis is the realm of the dead. So, the artist is not dealing, at least in exhibit number one, with the living. At this point one of Shakespeare’s lines comes to mind: “The sleeping and the dead are but as pictures.” Exactly. Pictures is what Moghal is making for art lovers, the pictures that you sometimes see while hallucinating or while trying to relive a moment.