LAHORE: An exhibition of artworks by three artists opened at the Alliance Francaise De Lahore on Tuesday. The exhibition featuring the works of Atif Khan, Minaa Haroon and Qasim Bugti is being organised by the French centre and Lahore Biennale Foundation.

Atif Khan’s work is homage to Pakistani popular visual culture, paying tribute to its Central Asian/Persian aesthetics and a local South Asian blend of expressive storytelling. Borrowing from and building on a gamut of images and iconography across hundreds of years of Mughal culture and miniature paintings, to Pakistani truck art and a diverse range of visual materials from his everyday life, Atif creates a unique imaginary universe. Juxtaposing images in contrasting environments subverts their original contextual meaning and opens windows to new stories that speak of his concerns about spiritual and physical worlds, simultaneously.

Minaa Haroon says about her work, “My research on objects begins by examining my mother’s jewelry that she keeps in her locker and is very attached to those pieces. The work predominantly responds to feminine accessories as they speak of female desires, lives, boundaries, and challenges in our lives.”

The works are also about the inheritance of women’s objects of possession (or objects they are possessive about), narrating and creating their individualistic portraits through this work. The objects tend to evoke memories of the past as they heirloom down from one generation to another over decades, especially in South Asian tradition. Subsequently, this orientation of objects and spaces investigates the personal and social expression of self-organisation, self-identity and creates a sociopolitical statement.

“The personal becomes political. With such evocation of memories through materials and processes, I redefine the meaning of objects by transforming them and celebrating them in tangible marks that shift objects into historical entities or relics. This celebration of the object inspires multiple layers of imagination to transform meaning and material and its historical context in the society,” says Ms Haroon.

Qasim Bugti says his latest work explores the resilience of trees that stand strong through adversity, with their branches outstretched like open arms, welcoming us into their embrace.

“Trees provide comfort, shelter, and joy to all, without discrimination. In literature and mythology, they are often depicted as the abodes of nature spirits. Ancient cultures, such as the Greeks and Persians, used the motif of the world tree, its roots wrapped around the Earth and its branches reaching the heavens, as a symbol of human potential to ascend from the material realm to the spiritual or to access mystical planes of existence. The Tree of Life, in particular, is a recurring theme in art, representing the unity and connection between heaven and earth, the past and present, and the cycle of death and rebirth. The cracks and wrinkles in tree bark are my main source of inspiration. Trees, much like humans, bear these physical marks that tell a story,” he says.

By examining the external structure of the tree, he seeks to uncover the deeper essence of its reality. My work draws from the ancient techniques of miniature painting, which further deepens my connection to the themes of endurance and timelessness.

The exhibition will remain on display till Nov 9.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2024