Usman Ghouri, associate professor at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture is an established printmaker and curator with several solo exhibitions (at home) and international group participations in the US, UK, Japan, Oman and Mauritius to his credit.

Here, he answers questions about his art practice and his efforts to promote printmaking.

Please describe your printmaking background and significant features of your work.

I graduated from National College of Arts in 1992 with a major in communication design and a minor in printmaking. My subsequent work experience was that of a designer.

Printmaking took precedence when I was enlisted in 1996 by the Indus Valley communication faculty to teach print media techniques to design students. In 1998, when I was transferred to the Fine Arts department as head of the printmaking faculty, I felt I needed to enhance my knowledge and skills in the finer arts of drawing, painting, etc.

The opportunity to gain further understanding, polish my skills and consolidate my grasp of art fundamentals came in 2000 when I enrolled for a master’s programme in printmaking at the College of Fine Arts, University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. After obtaining my master’s degree, I spent another year there to further explore and expand my art practice. I experimented with alphabets and scripts as an expressive visual language. Writing and textual imagery became part of my visual vocabulary; for example, to evince a cultural crossover, I interwove Urdu and English scripts into a symbolic narrative.

The fish image was another recurring feature in my work—I equate water with the human soul and fish with the human body in my prints examining the body and soul conflict.

Likewise, other organic forms like trees, flowers and seeds have a decorative and symbolicfunction in my compositions.

What is the status of printmaking in the current art scene? How are you promoting the genre? Is there an increase in student enrollment to study the subject? Likewise, have viewer interest/awareness and collector base grown?

There is a dearth of professional printmakers here and the few who produce prints prefer to be known as visual artists. I am the only one who is working consistently with print media as an artist and educator for over a decade. My stance is experimental and I have pushed the image transferring technique beyond traditional methods towards procedures like photocopying, embossing, gum Arabic, silkscreen, stenciling, raisin casting, etc., on varied and unconventional supports, like fabric and canvas, as well as three-dimensional arrangements in wood and metal. This is apparent in my current work consisting of installations and wall hangings.

Innovation has not only energised my art practice, but has also motivated the students and it ties in with contemporary art approaches and expressions. However, as a process-based art form, printmaking entails laborious engagement with technique and equipment.

This often deters student enrollment as they prefer to opt for the ‘quick result-oriented’ media so freely accessible nowadays.

Other than sustained efforts on the academic side, I plan to facilitate printmaking by building a studio for professionals where artists can execute printmaking projects to their satisfaction. The genre’s progress has been hindered by lack of studio facilities, and provision of such services will encourage production and innovation.

As a member of the IVS faculty, I introduced the Box Print Portfolio project a few years ago to build printmaking awareness. The 2009 ‘Different drummer’ and the 2010 Mike Kempson workshop and ‘Box Portfolio’ shows were huge successes. The aim of the project was to establish an international exchange programme, strengthen bonds and work relations with artists as well as between national and international art institutions.

The novelty of purchasing the boxed portfolio was a rare opportunity for art collectors and, for the average viewer, the two shows were occasions to engage with a diverse collection of prints by professionals (faculty members of NCA and the IVS) some of whom are among the leading lights of the art world here. The events were also fundraisers to enable the fine art department to buy a large-scale intaglio press for the development of the printmaking facilities.

You were curator of the IVS Gallery for some years. What does it take to curate a show? How do you view the present practice of artists doubling as curators?

For some, curating a show means to book artists and assign them a certain number of paintings and then organising an exhibition with the collected work. For me as the curator of Indus Valley Gallery, the working ideology was based on ‘what needs to be shown’.

During my tenure I introduced annual faculty exhibitions, box print portfolio shows and water colour exhibitions.

Young talent was encouraged, ceramics was brought to the forefront and retrospectives of forgotten pioneers like Mian Salahuddin were arranged. In my role as the curator of the Koel exhibition, ‘Sepia voyages’ I exchanged views with miniature artist Navid Sadiq for several months. We discussed his focus on traditional methods and values and their contemporary interpretations. The resultant work is particularly interesting from this angle of dialogue between traditional imagery and modern execution. As a curator, I feel this is what needs to be highlighted today.