3 min read
Stay updated with the latest - Click here to follow us on Instagram
Journalism of Courage
Premium
This is an archive article published on May 5, 2010
Faith and reason
In greater scheme of things cities are,after all,blinking lights. Thats why Pakistani artist Mehreen Murtazas bombastically-titled work,The Big Refractor of the Astrophysical Observatory,makes an immediate connect.
In greater scheme of things cities are,after all,blinking lights. Thats why Pakistani artist Mehreen Murtazas bombastically-titled work,The Big Refractor of the Astrophysical Observatory,makes an immediate connect. Its an organic representation of the satellite map of Lahore and is,as the handout (given at the gallery) says,a live body of signals. The handout further states that the red blinking icons in the map are locations in the city that appear to make some sort of scientific signal. Its easy to lose oneself in the maze of such complex ideas,but its important to understand that as am artist from the sub-continent Murtaza takes it upon herself to layer her visual narratives with traditional and popular appeal. The logic of science-fiction is almost ridiculed in her world,where the natural world and the virtual world co-exist freely.
Sufi culture is a dominant theme in her worksm as is evident in the work The Great Red Strom where a red Kabah-like (the simple cube stone building in Mecca) structure is almost blown into smithereens is supposed to represent the bereftness of religious iconography and symbols in the modern context.
Interestingly,another installation,The Order of the Universe Orchestra,has the same black Kabah cube almost floating in the air. The minimalistic work seems to celebrate the integrating and unifying power of monotheism in human life. There is a sense of symmetry in this particular work which seems to reflect a longing for a sense of mathematical and spiritual order.
Humour finds its way to the work of Murtaza (who has a BFA from Beaconhouse National University,Lahore and is a Gasworks resident artists) too. One particular digital print is a tongue-in-cheek comment on the corrupt nature of subcontinent politics. Magazine clippings of politicians shaking hand is juxtaposed against a ruined building. made during this time,highlights an apocalyptic vision. Another digital print,Congratulations and Celebrations,where two men are feeding each other sweets is a collected comment on the bleak nature of politics in the subcontinent. As she describes her work,The atmosphere of subversion leaping out of my work is borne directly out of todays socio-religious context,wherein modern day computing and technology collide with religious myth,superstition,and ritual New Social Orders and conspiracy theories conceal the Truth from the masses erupting a fraying political infrastructure.
The exhibition is on at the Experimenter Art Gallery
Advertisement
Loading Taboola...
Top Stories
Live Blog
Advertisement