Summary The exhibition, which showcases installation pieces by featured artists, is a commentary on the changing nature of cities and urban centres. Photo: Four Rooms curator
(Web Desk) – Featuring the works of four artists, the exhibition titled ‘Four Rooms’ organised by The Paint Bucket art gallery as part of the Lahore Biennale opened on Thursday at the Punjab Institute of Languages and Culture.
The exhibition, which showcases installation pieces by featured artists, is a commentary on the changing nature of cities and urban centres, reflecting on the similarities, including those shared by the inhabitants, even though they may not be aware of it.
Explaining the exhibition, Anum Lasharie, the curator of the show and manager of Paint Bucket, said she had put together the four artists because their work not only stood alone but put together, formed a unique narrative on the everyday lives and interaction of people with their surroundings.
“In this show we present four seemingly unrelated installations, neighbours who are under the misconception that they have nothing in common,” she said.
The display is divided into four rooms, with works of each artist taking over an entire room.
The exhibition is a commentary on the changing nature of cities and urban centres. Photo: Four Rooms curator
The installation titled “Seek and Hide” by Sana Jafri took people through a corridor and into a wardrobe, the most personal of spaces. “The personal and private items in the wardrobe form an intimate portrait of an individual’s desires, dreams, pain and suffering” said Jafri describing the concept. “The closet is a space where one would run away from traumatic childhood experiences, seek refuge and get comfortable with yourself. It is the darkness and the light at the end of the tunnel,” she said.
Jafri’s works also included a video piece that showed darkness in different forms taking over the room. This, she explained, was a comment on how a safe space can turn into someone’s biggest nightmare based on associations and experiences one has had with the space.
Suleman Faisal’s installation titled ‘Don’t think twice’ consisted of an array of squeaky toys casted in black rubber. “I have always thought how as a child one probably adores high pitch sounds and how that admiration changes once you grow up. This gradual transition which turns a squeak into a shriek has kept me awake many nights and this installation is a result of that thought process,” he said of his work.
Nairah Sharjeal’s installation used polyester fibre and silicone, showing everyday banal objects. The items resembled wispy translucent skin shed by a snake. Her installations showcased hollow casts of solid, inanimate, banal objects used in everyday routine.
The exhibition formed a unique narrative on the everyday lives and interaction of people with their surroundings. Photo: Four Rooms curator
She said her current installation takes inspiration from the city and the demolition and reconstruction of spaces for building transportation mediums. “My work finds a particular relation in this respect to the items casted and the overall backstory defining them,” she said. “It represents that state that has gone by, what is left behind is its tangible absence.”
Saad Ahmed’s work titled ‘What seeks you’ used reflective services through which he probed states of being through involuntary and enforced acts in everyday life. “In a sense, I am on a search through pixilated and half visible images showing uneasiness and unresolved questions,” he said. In his work he said, “I seek to fix the unfixed and try to resolve, a reason for the unreasonable, and answer to chaos.”
The exhibition will continue till Saturday.
