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DRAWING DOCUMENTS SULEMAN AQEEL KHILJI
SEE VIEW
DRAWING DOCUMENTS
Published by the Department of Fine Art Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture In partnership with Vasl Artists’ Collective © 2017 Indus Valley School of Art and Architecure All Rights Reserved Karachi, Pakistan ISBN: 978-969-9343-04-9 Printed by Royal Eastern Offset Design + Documentation by Acute Studio
BY SEHER NAVEED
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SEE VIEW SULEMAN AQEEL KHILJI ARTIST IN RESIDENCE, VASL ARTISTS’ COLLECTIVE
INTRODUCTION BY SEHER NAVEED TEXT BY FAZAL RIZVI
FOREWORD
‘See View’ by Suleman Aqeel Khilji marks the beginning of Drawing Documents, a project hosted by the Department of Fine Art and the IVS Gallery at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. The journal explores the boundaries of drawing and highlights the importance and significance of the medium. Its aim is to research contemporary drawing in Pakistan which continually informs and challenges other mediums. Drawing Documents is proud to present its first artist Suleman Aqeel Khilji whose work results from the research he has conducted during his two-month residency at Vasl, Karachi. See View is part of a larger, ongoing exploration of Karachi’s geography and urbanization. I would like to thank Fazal Rizvi for his involvement and contribution. This publication would not have been possible without the generous support of its partner, VASL and the hard work put in by Aziza Ahmad, Muniba Rasheed and Saad Khurshid from Acute Studio. We also greatly appreciate the participation of Adeela Suleman, Head of the Department of Fine Art and Samina Raees Khan, Executive Director, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture.
SEE VIEW ‘THE LANDSCAPE IS ALREADY THERE’ SEHER NAVEED
Suleman Khilji came to Karachi in 2016 for two months as an artist in residence at Vasl Artist Association. It was there that he began a body of work entitled See View. The title, which suggests an enquiry into the city’s landscape, was inspired by tourists exploring Karachi who recommend that a visit to its popular beach called Sea View is mandatory. See View is based on drawings and photographs Suleman conceived while exploring Karachi. The images are of quotidian objects such as concrete bricks and scenes of people sitting in dhabas and construction sites. What makes them relevant is not their mundane subject matter but their strong subtext - the human presence within a mounting concrete jungle. As his work progressed Suleman eventually employed sculpture and painting in an attempt to observe the growth of concrete in Karachi’s ever-changing geography. Although Suleman’s highly evocative works may appear to be abstract, he himself is invariably concerned with the figurative. His previous portfolio has always portrayed the human form while exploring modern concepts of landscape and representation. A narrative element emerges in his drawings which comes from his close observation of his models. During the residency Suleman set out to investigate the
streets and markets of Karachi, collecting different objects some of which he employed later in his work. He eventually found a model that not only had character but was also suggestive of the city’s landscape - a concrete masonry unit also known as a hollow block and most commonly used in the construction of walls. As an entry point into the series, Suleman began his investigation by repeatedly photographing and drawing the block. He drew on different surfaces using diverse mediums and techniques and saw Karachi’s coarse terrain in the object’s texture - implying that ‘the landscape is already there’1. This notion is important to understand as it reveals the artist’s conscious efforts to move away from the direct representation of objects. For instance, apart from considering the presence of land in the concrete block, Suleman also recognizes the object’s anthropomorphic qualities. The hollow block with two cores is suggestive of facial features. Hence, while simultaneously concerned with form and symbology, he frequently uses drawings as an ideational tool in order to observe, re-review and comprehend the possibilities of his subject matter. The artist’s choice of imagery comes from his own understanding of the city. These are mostly incidents he has witnessed firsthand or those he is resurrecting from past associations. While Suleman is well aware of the intended use of his subjects, he enjoys how art can manipulate them for other purposes. Following his fascination with the hollow block, he was drawn to the form of the dolos. He first saw one placed outside the Rangers’ Headquarters painted in camouflage. The dolos, geometric and angular in shape, are often noticed at the harbour, protecting sea and sand from erosion. The objects Suleman has employed are mostly based on his curiosity with form and demonstrate everyday interactions. Such was the case when he introduced the Bahria Town ‘Icon Tower’ in his work. The high-rise building, still under construction, is tall enough to be noticed from many parts of the city. Using
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Text taken from a drawing made by Suleman Aqeel Khilji, Karachi. 2016.
the structure like a compass to navigate his way around, he also observed it (perhaps due to its geographical location) as an object that one would religiously circumambulate daily. Working in two, three and four dimensions, Suleman acknowledges different mediums and approaches. Fascinated by the abundance of substances such as sand, rust and concrete, he strategically deploys materials for their aesthetic qualities and appropriateness to his ideas. The physical properties of these materials are stretched as he constructs drawings that determine the physical as well as the virtual boundaries. By adding found materials such as sand and cement to the painted surfaces he invents a convincing third space. Using Karachi’s subdued colours and the contrasting gradients in its land, sky and sea (during sunrise and sunset), a strange sense of light prevails in Suleman’s work. This is further amplified by the use of technological references as he often employs ‘Instagram’, transforming his images, particularly the colours, through various filters that are featured on the App. These altered tinges and hues are then referenced in his drawings and paintings. ‘Instagram’ gives Suleman a different perspective - an ability to play with painterly conventions through the use of digital media. Although Suleiman has explored painting and sculpture, drawing remains his predominant concern. Venturing into the expanded field of the medium, his drawings not only hold a technical function (being diagrammatic in kind) but can also be considered works in their own right. One can see small and delicate images in his sketchbooks which are more exploratory in nature. Produced mostly through observation and at times from memory, they engender a certain feeling of intimacy with the artist. On many levels the sketchbooks act as mediators, translating ideas into create works that are more discrete and reductive in nature.
MEMORY-SCAPE
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FAZAL RIZVI
As I trace along the waves in this photograph I remember what that day was like. Just look at how happy everyone looks- especially you. Usually everyone seems to be laughing in these pictures for no apparent reason. But was there more to be merry about then? Wait, I notice here that you were trying to say something to me, while I listen intently. But I don’t quite remember anything you may have said. I recall, as I kept tracing over the waves in this picture just now, that the sea was rather obnoxious that day. It seems that each wave while thrashing against this merry crowd, drowned all the laughter and all that talk with it. What was the sea so worked up about?
Sea view, December 1993
Look out of the window and tell me what do you see. A sliver. A sliver of what? Of something. A sliver of what remains, perhaps. And what remains to be? Why do you talk in such clues? And with such uncertainty? When uncertainty is all that prevails, then what else do you want me to say? Alright, let me try a bit better. Its blue. A sliver of blue as I said. Hues of blue. But it looks like the end of the blues. And the beginning of an other. The doing and the undoing resting side by side. In complete tranquility. But it has no choice but to stay tranquil. Or at the very least pretend so. Or else this other won’t even let this sliver remain. This is a residue of all that surrounded us once. You. Me. And them. It would often thrash against us. Wake us up and bewilder us. But at times the tone was gentle and soothing too. And often at night it would lull us. It clearly wasn’t as merciless. As who? -
MEMORY-SCAPE
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Wasn’t it a Saturday when this is from? That is when all of us usually went there, for it used to be a holiday then. It used to be all of us then, now its usually just a few. A handful. Looking at this, I remember you all screaming while moving in circles at that incredible speed. It had seemed then as if it would keep moving like that forever. In circles. We were led to believe that that is how life is. But all of that has long been over. I think I was more scared for you all the while that I stood in this corner below where I took this picture from. I can tell the camera shook as my hands nervously shook. This place after all was one of my nightmares. But this nightmare now, is worse.
Funland, A Saturday, 1996
Do you know where is he taking us? I usually do know, but I can’t really tell today. This is certainly not his usual trail. Well, that much even I can tell. He says the land has escaped. What does that even mean? The land that he knew or had gotten familiar with has simply escaped. Or been made to? Perhaps. He would often be seen drifting through places. Mingling with all that came his way with an incredible amount of ease. And he would see everything in its entirety- at least he would try to. Each element and feature isolated and understood for its own worth. And thereafter he would layer one of these atop another. Creating a complex web of meanings within narratives. Intertwining histories with many other imagined, projected and aspired futures. Appearing all at once on a common surface. He likes to call these his landscapes. He refers to anything that he makes as landscapes. That is, until now. -
Do you even know where you stand anymore? On land? A field? A free field? There are no free fields. There are no fields at all. Anymore. But then where are we? Well, you can say that we are perched somewhere and how about we leave it at that? But now what is left when the land is gone. When there is no expanse to look at. That is exactly what he wants us to look at and not look away from. He wants us to recalibrate our senses. Our vision, to be precise. Recalibrate it to a mere view. Zoom in and focus. To view a view. It is grey and murky here. It is grey and murky where I am too. What else do you expect? But it clouds my judgment. My vision, I mean. Even I can not tell where I stand. Do you know something? This grey mist is the closest thing to clouds, that is left here.
MEMORY-SCAPE
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This is where we all grew up. And they tell me it is just about to go. They are in the process of emptying the house these days, and even though nothing I own is physically present within that place, but as clichéd as it may sound there are memories of course. Some are etched on my mind,and many others are etched on those walls and those crevices within those walls. I often saw the paint on the walls peeling off and upon peeling more consciously it would reveal all these different layers pressed against one another, hinting at all the time and misery that these walls have been a witness to. I remember once encountering this peculiar green layer. From what I remember of it, it seems to match almost perfectly with this shade of pantone # 325. You may look it up and then imagine it all across on walls in a room and you might just think people were crazy then, as I did too upon encountering these few fragments of it. Those fragments and many more robust ones will come crumbling down this summer.
Block 4 Federal ‘B’ Area The Summer of 2016
He wants us to peek right into it. Into what? Into where we have come. And what we have become. But this is not where we came from. Right?
But the light does soften it. Makes it bearable. And beautiful too. But this surface you are so taken aback by, knows no softness. And is often unbearable. Unforgiving to be precise.
It looks beautiful inside though. What do you say? It is charming indeed. They may call this seduction. They will tell many stories of a man having fallen prey to the charms of an ordinary stone. And he seduces us into looking into this solitary unit that we dwell within. To reflect and understand and to face our own crystallized fate. No no. Not crystallized. But concretized. Is that even a term? I believe it is, but within a very specific context here. And what would that context be? You just have to look all around yourself and perhaps even within yourself, then you will surely know. But just look at this light brushing gently against the surface. It is as if a painter walked by and set the light to perfect intensity and then left. Oh please, don’t be fooled by it. -
Is this a mirror that he is holding onto us? Is this our conscience staring back at us blankly when we are most naked and exposed. And bare. And hollow from within? Why has he exposed us so? And why has he brought us here? Do you hear the noise? That continuous shrill? You haven’t even realized? Oh well, it wasn’t always this shrill. It was just a grey noise playing in the background. But from the background when it came into this foreground, we don’t quite know. It just made its way into our spaces. Into our spaces. And whatever little is left of them.
Suleman Aqeel Khilji (b. 1985, Quetta, Pakistan) Suleman Aqeel Khilji graduated with a Distinction in painting in 2011 from National College of Arts, (NCA) Lahore. He was selected for a student exchange program to Ecole de Beaux Art Paris in 2009. He has been displaying his work across Pakistan, and has had group shows in France and the UK. In 2016 he participated in Vasl teaching artist residency program in Karachi. Suleman is currently living and working in Lahore, Pakistan.
LIST OF WORKS
7. Studies of a View Found construction material, ink, gouache and graphite on paper
8. View 4 Found construction material, light box and ink.
1. Detail of ‘Study of a Dolos’ Oil and sand on paper
2. Detail of ‘Study of a Concrete Pillar’ Graphite and Marker on paper 76”x22”
9. Detail of ‘Studies of a View’ Archival Ink on paper 11”x8”
10. ‘Building in Process’ Photograph from the Artist’s digital archives
3. (Front and Back cover) Detail of ‘Studies of a view’ Archival Ink on paper 7”x9”
4. Detail of ‘Study of a building in process’ Oil and Sand on canvas 72”x23”
11. Artist Studio in the Department of Fine Art, Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture
12. Study Model of a Dolos X- Ray sheet
5. View 2 Plywood, aluminum, photo transfer and ink.
6. Sea View Photograph from the Artist’s digital archives.
13. Study of a Dolos Oil and Sand on paper 84”x48”
14. Study of a Dolos (diptych) Oil and Sand on canvas 6”x6” each
15. Drawing 1 (sketchbook) Pen and Graphite on paper
16. View 3 Slide Projection, found slide and screen print on Somerset paper
23. Drawing 6 (sketchbook) Graphite on paper
24. Drawing 7 (sketchbook) Graphite on paper
17. Detail of ‘View 1’ Oil and Sand on canvas
18. View 1 Oil and Sand on canvas 94”x56”
25. Drawing 8 (sketchbook) Pen and Marker on paper
26. Study of a Concrete Pillar Graphite and Marker on paper 76”x22”
19. Drawing 2 (sketchbook) Graphite on paper
20. Drawing 3 (sketchbook) Graphite on paper
27. ‘Untitled’ Acrylic on Marine Plywood 22” diameter
28. Drawing 9 (sketchbook) Colour pencil and Pen on paper
21. Drawing 4 (sketchbook) Graphite on paper
22. Drawing 5 (sketchbook) Graphite on paper
29. ‘The landscape is already there’Study of a concrete block Graphite and colour pencil on paper 30”x20”
Drawing Documents Department of Fine Art