Till the Last Look

Time has no choice but to venture forward. It takes its steps and moves above and beyond all that was before him. It heals, it evolves, and reflects upon all that it has left behind and how he continues to change as he trudges along. He looks back and sees how much has happened, and no matter how far gone it may be, he will never forget; it has made him what he is.
But if one begins to open the weave of conversations and thoughts that have become us today, we’ll find a thread that has been keeping us together. A sentiment we may all share, a hope we may all hold on to. Such is the notion behind Mohammad Ali Talpur’s work. His large canvasses encompassing various mediums, pulling its viewers into its deceptively simplistic visuals.
Mohammad Ali Talpur strips away all colour that could have embedded his work with any unnecessary connotations or character, staying true to a monochromatic theme that incorporates the two basic colours black and white, forming visuals using simple lines. These varied, repetitive lines that are mathematically placed find themselves the components that form optical illusions, where the viewer witnesses a visual rhythm beside the obvious pictorial one.
The universe is made up of math, and thus, patterns. By stripping away all colour and form in his pieces, he leaves behind the line, creating a language that is universal and relatable to all audiences as all can identify with a line and its relationship in a given structure. His recent training in calligraphy also found itself in this body of work; as language and a need to communicate is also a universal requirement.
Talpur plays with what can be achieved by the varying placement of a line in correlation to others, achieving differing visuals. However, Talpur doesn’t just play with lines and their mathematical placement, he also experiments with its thickness and reveals what an impact this slight variation can make to the overall visual.
But the visual treat, at least for me, was to see the really subtle tweaks and shifts in the pieces. In Untitled 9 and Untitled 8, the entire piece comprises of vertical lines, except the second half seems to have slightly shifted, breaking up the perfection and flawlessness of the piece. In Untitled 5, the crosshatched grid actually reveals vertical lines that diverge into two towards the bottom of the canvas.
The marble pieces were also spectacular as it connoted to lines existing in the physical realm.
Amidst art that has overcomplicated itself over the decades with heavy connotations, colour and form, it takes artists like Talpur to dial back and filter out the excess. His work reveals the hidden grid behind all art that is created, and creates a body of work that everyone can identify with and be drawn in by.
In his body of work, ‘Till the last look’, Talpur proves just how powerful simplicity can be.