The Prepetual Power of Art

In its first sentence, The Gospel According to St. John proclaims the primacy of language: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Hence priests who possessed the word were the most privileged, powerful and protected part of a community. Especially in societies before the Gutenberg press which revolutionised the making of a book, and spread the word (of God) to masses.  

In a similar way the makers of image were disseminating the stories of The Bible to a large and mostly illiterate public. A phenomenon not limited to Christian world, but in other cultures too. In most societies if priests, preachers, shamans were considered as the treasurers of a divine message, it was the image maker who interpreted, spread, and morphed the divine message into a visual content. So it is not surprising that if a Medieval icon, a Hindu statue, a Buddhist carving, and African ancestral mask is worshipped, it is the work made by an artist that makes a fellow human to bow, kneel, and prostrate in front of that creation – in stone, paper, fabric, wood, metal, straw, clay, etc.  

Artists still possess that power, which transforms their fellow citizens, physically, psychologically, intellectually, socially. In a society  bitten by the idea of power – from the highest house of the state to the lowest abode of a daily wage earner; the power controls the atmosphere, emotions, relations, affairs, acts. One observes its presence in politics, economy, pedagogy, faith, fashion, and art. The inaugural edition of Articulate Residencies (held in Lahore from 19th to 28th January 2024) is an attempt to address the ‘power of art’ on multiple levels. A collaboration between Articulate Studios and HQ Art Foundation, the residency that comprises six artists and one mentor/curator provides a venue to explore the ideas of power drenched in our surroundings, manifested in the layout of a traditional house, learning systems, questions of identity, gender, violence in real life and on cinema (an illusion that is more lasting, perfect and believable than mere reality!).

All six practitioners of art, in their diverse languages, have dealt with the power of art. For some, like Hamid Ali Hanbhi, it is the power of popular cinema, which influences, moulds and moves a vast majority, that responds to the themes of violence, social unjust, gender inequality, and identifies – either with the despot, or with the destitute. In the works based on single shots from a popular Hindi movie about Phoolan Devi, a legendary rebel and woman bandit, Hanbhi draws our attention to the base cruelty of a situation that is enjoyed on celluloid while comfortably devouring pop corns in a picture theatre.  

The social fabric of the society, the interaction between humans and spaces, between human beings from various backgrounds, and the semiotics of their relations to objects, times of the day, nature, all observed in a crisp, condense and complex video projection by Anusha Khalid. The work investigates – and extends the base and hidden emotions, fears, streaks, desires in ourselves through an outside lens. Yet when a viewer is witnessing the settings and characters in her video projection, he/she – accompanying the camera – enters that space of reality; which intriguingly exists between physical and metaphysical. You watch a boy sprinting, a dog in action; mundane glimpses of a house, sea-waves, but Khalid envelopes these versions of familiar reality with layers of deeper and unavoidable undercurrents, that are glued to a space/situation, because whenever a person recalls the memory of an interaction, argument, incident encased within that material environment.  

A number of participants of the residency reacted to the physical surroundings in their works, though each adopting a separate route and distinct direction. Ayesha Zulfiqar measured the building plans of the entire area, where the residency is taking place, documented them physically and then recreated them as an abstracted object, a possibility or extension, often neglected or never realized. Reminding of Javier Marias’s observation that when we sit on a chair, lie on a bed, enter a room, we never think about those who before us occupied the same spaces, or roamed the same area. Zulfiqar in her site-specific installation collects the contours of the complex structure/architecture, physical present, but usually invisible and never noticed. The installation offers another version of map, the map of a world we inhabit, even temporarily for the duration of the residency.

The location of Articulate Residencies, due to its unusual character, extensive lawns, calmness, and traditional architecture inspired artists who responded to one or other aspect. For example Haider Ali Naqvi, combining the static building with living experience produced a number of paint based/washed surfaces that bear a resemblance to the building where the residency took place. As he personalised the edifices and elevations of period structures, he also personalised the mundane residue of human indulgences. Cigarette butts in their impressions, varying imprints of a tea cup on a paper. marks of left over fruit peel, in a sense are reminiscent of the ten days he spent in this venue along with his fellow participants. These images recall Kamal, the protagonist of Oran Pamuk’s novel The Museum of Innocence, who stealthily collects the cigarette butts, hair pins, used tissue papers, pencils, and other small and insignificant trinkets touched by Fusun, the girl he is in love with.  

The mesmerising character of Articulate Residencies’ site is evident in the work of Yasin Khan, as he transforms the outside views, i.e., lawns, trees, hedges, pathway into several mixed media surfaces, blending transferred images of nature, with reflective tapes (cut into holes, and overlapping different shades), and fine metal wire mesh (a material often used to cover windows and door pans, as witnessed at the house of residency. The elements of nature, covered with a few layers of these man-made materials, which are unable to conceal them completely, could be an interpretation of the power of art, that makes us realize how nature is still visible, present, and potent behind layers of industrially manufactured materials. Actually these add to the importance and allure of nature. Laden with tactile surfaces, Yaseen Khan’s works turn into a narrative of our times, especially about the issue of environment, ecology, and recycling.  

Axel Lucas, the sixth artist of the residency has explored the idea of beauty in a recycled mundane substance. Bricks torn from a nearby building. Following the traditional pattern of making a brick floor, he has arranged these discoloured, de-shaped, and damaged terra-cotta bricks on the floor of a room with pristine white walls – like a white cube gallery. The stark contrast offers a view of the outside in a built space. It also joins two hemispheres. The realm of class, perfection, wealth, affluence, with the world of under-privileged, yet a viewer looks and admires the uncanny beauty discovered and shared by Lucas. The artist has been exploring the aesthetics of the ordinary, as in the past he incorporated the layout of a school exercise book (for English writing) to create sculptures and installations. In the present residency, he bought pad of printed card paper, normally used for taking notes in offices, classrooms, state meetings, and by pasting these ‘unwritten pieces’ in various orders and compositions, he has led us to formulate our personal, private and intuitive narratives prompted by these blank pieces of paper.  

A feat not separate from one of the objectives of the residency; to invite artists for exploring, expanding and exchanging ideas, to form a dialogue amongst them, and with their physical environment in the house, and outside. Where the real world starts. The residency is a venture of Articulate Studios in collaboration with HQ Art Foundation – followed by the exhibition of works produced during there, at Articulate Studios Lahore, from 1st to 6th February 2024 –  is an attempt to support image makers in their quest for diversity, truth and connection with their urgent or remote surroundings. Beginning of this initiative in the context of Pakistani art is somehow similar to what John Berger describes; “The moment at which a piece of music begins provides a clue to the nature of all arts”.