SUSPENDED IN PATTERNS
Satrang Gallery is an initiative of Serena Hotels Pakistan to encourage and promote talented artists in their pursuit of excellence
“SUSPENDED IN PATTERNS” Curatorial Statement
Curator: Mehrbano Khattak With her team-members: Nadia, Beenish and Saima “Mental patterns do not originate out of inorganic nature. They originate out of society, which originates out of inorganic nature. And, as anthropologists know so well, what a mind thinks is as dominated by biological patterns as social patterns are dominated by biological patterns and as biological patterns are dominated by inorganic patterns. There is no direct scientific connection between mind and matter. As the atomic scientist, Neil Bohr, said, “We are suspended in language.” Our intellectual description of nature is always culturally derived.” - Robert M Pirsig
Throughout the rich history of arts, the craft ethnicities of the Islamic world evolve in a multitude of styles applied to a great variety of media but always with unifying factors that make them instantly recognizable. Harmony is central. Providing a visual language within and to truly experience excellence one must both embrace and apply it as best fits the requirements of the situation. The elements of a pattern repeat in a predictable yet visually pleasant manner, they combine, they interact and fuse. Patterns also have a close linkage with production design, thus have maintained a great value in the evolution of linking art to industry. The application of the values of fine art to the production of commercial design was a key stage in the evolution of design as we know it today. Workmanship today carries a great deal of art history. The exhibition “SUSPENDED IN PATTERNS” is mainly working around the same biological patterns as social patterns quoted from Pirsig’s writing. The repetition in the works of our artists in this exhibition are visual patterns, a narration of their surroundings, a visual description of what their eyes see, what they hear and similarly how they react; it is their manner of unfolding pattern to the audience from the artist’s point of view. Beenish Khalid drives us through her journey of a decorative life of a house-hold memories. Where we as living things make a nest into a home. Giving us the illusion of this is where we all will remain, but in reality it is only a structure to be lived in for a while and then we move on. Maimoona Riaz draws a maze of thoughts and reality. Playing with spaces inside and circling around, leading us to the point of their synthesis and the enormity of behavioural change. Mehrbano Khattak involved us in an experience of multiple style of visual patterns. The inorganic ribbon in waves, bows, twirl, tiling and cracks are her organic depiction of an individual; while the organic or the individual are restrained from movement in the meander. Nadia Rahat fascinates us with her visual representation of the surroundings; which we become so immune to and tend to ignore. The enthralling layering of her images are asking the questions she has left for us to resolve. Nida Bangash takes us to an exploration of relations from an idea to simplification: deconstruction or reconstruction; to the political: cultural or social; and from the momentary: subjective or objective; to the structural: substantial or permanent. Saima Beenish has made a great plan to awe us, with the high quality usage of the traditional miniature painting technique and the images depicting a compelling notion of every human; to enhance at various stages of their personal as well as collective growth and progress. Altogether, the show invites us to traverse up through pattern, its harmony is an “experience with aesthetic quality”.
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Beenish Khalid Maimoona Riaz Mehrbano Khattak Nadia Rahat Nida Bangash Saima Beenish
All participating artists are graduates of National College of Arts, Pakistan, the oldest and most prestigious institution of the country. Participating artists have extensively exhibited at national and international exhibitions. Along with their specialized and professional practices they are devoted educators, training and guiding students towards their specialization.
Beenish Khalid Visual Artist, Art Educator Lives and works in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Projects SLICE, an international project that will present twenty new artworks created in collaboration with UK and Pakistani artists (ongoing) Exhibitions 2013 Phillips Collection of Emerging Artists, NCA Gallery, Rawalpindi 2012 Magical Narratives, DIFC (Dubai international finance centre), Dubai Diversity in Creativity, National Art Gallery Islamabad, Pakistan.
Mamoona Riaz Mamoona Riaz (b. 1987), lives and works in Rawalpindi. She graduated from National College of Arts with Honors in Miniature painting. She is also skilled in drawing, oil painting, illumination, calligraphy, and print making. Currently working at Satrang art gallery, she has participated in many projects and workshops and exhibited her work nationally and internationally at NM art gallery, UAE, National art gallery, Alhamra art council, Satrang art gallery, VM art gallery, Aqs art gallery and Zahoor-ul-Ikhlaq art gallery.
Mehrbano Khattak Visual Artist, Communication Designer, Art Educator Lives and works in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Exhibitions 2014 Group Exhibition in Nepal, February, 2014 (upcoming) 2012 Magical Narratives, DIFC - Dubai and NM Art Gallery, Dubai 2011 VASL in Collaboration with ARTEd Outreach Workshop, Chitral [http://www.vaslart. org/xhtml/artnow/outreach/2011/chitral_workshop/index.html]
Nadia Rahat Visual Artist, Art Educator Lives and works in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Assistant Professor in Fine Arts Department, National College of Arts, Rawalpindi Exhibitions 2014 Group Exhibition in Nepal, February, 2014 (upcoming) 2013 Calligraphy and Miniature, Pakistan Embassy, Canada 3x3 Project, The National Gallery, Bangkok Curator of Creative Marque, Miniature Alumni show at NCA Gallery, Rawalpindi 2012 Curator of Magical Narratives, DIFC, Dubai and NM Art Gallery, Dubai
Nida Bangash Exhibitions 2013 War Rugs with Love, Saeed Akhtar’s Studio, Lahore New works by Marium Rehman and Nida Bangash, The Drawing Room Gallery, Lahore 2012 Left Behind, Koel Gallery, Karachi 2012 Open your Eyes, Belconnen Arts Center, Canberra, Australia
Saima Beenish Visual Artist, Art Educator Lives and works in Jhelum and Rawalpindi, Pakistan Exhibitions 2013 Philips Collection Emerging Artist Show, National College of Arts, Rawalpindi Miniature Alumni show, NCA Gallery, Rawalpindi 2012 Group show, KOEL gallery, Karachi 2012 Group show, NM art gallery, Dubai
House-I, 2013 Gouache and paper collage on wasli 15 x 20 inches
Beenish Khalid “The series of work is on the pattern of seven years we as a family lived in one house. The time we shared together. And how the importance of house vanishes when it’s time to leave it, the feeling of home is not from the concrete structure itself but home is people not a place...”
Untitled, 2013 Gouache and paper collage on wasli 10 x 29 inches
Soft Targets-II, 2013 Laser engraving on wasli 21 x 26 Inches
Maimoona Riaz A labyrinth of thoughts and reality, their point of fusion. A critical analysis of general behaviour with spaces around. My commentary is on how the divergence from one space to another works and within us part from each encounter resulting in behavioural changes. My work is an amalgam of miniature, sculpture and cartography. In this narrative setting I insert boxes with windows through which a viewer can peep into a factory of life.
Disoriented Narratives-III, 2013 Gouache and watercolour on paper 6 x 6 Inches
Like a Meander - I, 2013 Pencil colour on transparency
Like a Meander - II, 2013 Pencil colour on transparency
Mehrbano Khattak My work for this exhibition evolved many times, I thought of making literal pattern/s but I got bored myself of that and thought what would the viewers say, they will get bored too. In lieu of a exact pattern, I picked up the most common and most non-harmonic (for some that is) pattern of every life “marriage�. It is an embedded truth or an ultimate end of every individual life. It’s planning starts from the first cry, out of the womb. The inorganic ribbon is an individual, playing in waves, twirl, social pressures, interacting etc and the bow is the tie/the knot of marriage. Placed sometime in royal colours and sometimes in cracks, and it becomes engaged. I placed my individuals in wraps after being engaged, while their utopian grass (happiness) sometimes twirl inside them, they are restrained from movement in the meander. You will always see my work in multiple styles and I love working in minimalistic manner. Hope you enjoy viewing my work.
Playful, 2013 Colour pencil & pastel, gouache on treated surface 6 x 6 Inches
Rife-II, 2013 Gouache on wasli 16.5 x 21.5inches
Nadia Rahat My visual concerns are based on continuous search for truth related to illusions and realities which surround us. My work is an attempt to address and understand various reasons that led to various issues on personal, social and political fronts, affecting us individually and collectively. My paintings convey my reactions and emotions emerging from my experiences as a witness and as an observer. The inspiration for my paintings comes from variety of sources including personal experiences, people, events, miniature paintings, books, comics, and electronic media. I am deeply fascinated by the structure and inviting nature of miniature painting, opening imagery layer by layer. In my work I explore the technique which is deeply rooted in tradition by exploring the potential of the medium. I have combined relief, etching, and 3-dimensional with miniature painting while remaining within the parameters set by the discipline. In recent work titled “Rife-I”, “Rife-II” and “Rife-III” is a comment on the insidious patterns in attitude and behavior of humans attaching them more to their egos and detaching them not only from their true selves but also from others resulting in the crumbling levels of inner peace.
Rife-1, 2013 Gouache on wasli 16.5 x 21.5inches
The Tree of Life-II, 2013 Gouache, ink and graphite on archival paper 13 x 11 inches
Nida Bangash Nida Bangash is a Visual Artist, born in Iran and brought up in Pakistan.She is trained in the traditions of Persian and South Asian miniatures and experienced in employing these techniques in contemporary art. Her works use the language of patterns as a means of weaving together the complexities of her cross-cultural experiences. Her studies explore themes from abstraction: deconstruction or reconstruction; to the political: cultural or social; and from the ephemeral: subjective or objective; to the structural: substantial or permanent. She received her MA (Hons.) Visual Art from National College of Arts, Lahore in 2008. She recently conducted a Miniature Painting workshop at Australian National University, Canberra, where she was a resident Artist in Painting department. Her recent body of work entitled War Rugs with Love, part of which is The Tree of Life series, puts forth two-fold realities and binary forces breathing in and out- war and love.
The Tree of Life-I, 2013 Gouache, ink and graphite on archival paper 13 x 11 inches
Untitled, 2013 Gouache on wasli 10 x 16inches
Saima Beenish To me, chair is not just position or possession. In my work chairs are sequential stages of personal growth and progress. Each stage is vital and each one takes time, no stage can be omitted to get on the peak. This time my focus is more on traditional technique of miniature painting and skill rather than experimentation of different mediums.
Untitled, 2013 Gouache on wasli 12 X 20 inches
Satrang Gallery Asma Rashid Khan- Director Schezre Syed - Gallery Assistant Dhoufishan Raza - Gallery Assistant
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