Inquiry of Art, 2011

The body of work produced for this show is an investigation of the very basics of Pakistani art in the present times. For this purpose I asked my colleagues to provide me with names of people (writers, visual artists, poets, directors, musicians or anybody else) who have/had inspired his/her work or represent his/her philosophy. I then inscribed these names on to miniature books and placed them on a shelf, resulting in a “portrait” of the artist, critic, or curator.
I think that art has never been an individual’s effort only; it has always been produced according to the times in which the artist lives. These portraits articulate this phenomenon because viewers will find a cross listing of writers, etc. from one portrait to the next, indicating a specificity of time and place.

This project is also an historical chronicle because viewers can actually go through the names of influential people in a portrait and look up those writings of an author or works of an artist to clearly see how the influences of other people construct the portrait’s artist or critic.

I believe when we see something it becomes part of us and it can either influence us on an unconscious level, or we sometimes knowingly construct something in response to that. I like it when we opt for the latter and are consciously aware of the influence, give due credit to the person from whom we got the idea. This is a way to initiate dialogue, which is a healthy phenomenon.

Art is dead; long live Art!