Diverse artworks exhibited in Circle of Love

NCA hosts residency programme artist Patricia Yasmine Graf’s up-cycling, design thinking feats

The National College of Arts (NCA) hosted ‘Circles of Love’, a multifaceted exhibition on Thursday where Patricia Yasmine Graf, an artist at the NCA’s residence programme, worked with up-cycling and design thinking to produce diverse works.

Exhibition of Graf’s art work Circles of Love opens under the NCA in residence programme.

Speaking on the occasion, NCA Vice Chancellor (VC) Murtaza Jaffrey said, “There’s an urgent need to create awareness on environmental issues. This art exhibition was attended by people from all walks of life.”

The exhibition opened at the Tollinton Block at the NCA. Graf is a freelance multidisciplinary artist and designer from Aachen, Germany. She graduated from the Fine Arts Academy in Maastricht, The Netherlands in 2001. In 2005, she founded her own brand of bags, furniture and accessories, with a worldwide distribution network. In recent years Graf has participated in many international exhibitions and carried out various artistic performances. This year from March till June 2022 she worked as Artist in Residence at the National College of Art in Lahore, Pakistan.

As part of the Artist in Residence programme at the NCA, she has offered different “Design Thinking” and “Up-Cycling” workshops for students of the product design and textile design department. In these workshops, the focus was on giving new value to the leftover material from the regional denim production provided by the company Crescent Bahümán. In her designed works, she sees in herself a responsibility to deal with environmental issues and climate change in order to find sustainable ways and solutions for these challenges. She also ensures that the products she designs are produced in the most ethical ways possible.

During her residency at NCA, Graf worked with a vision to inspire the product design students to deal intensively with the given material and carry out creative material research to get to know its properties. In the end, the prototype of a new product was to be created from the insights gained. Similarly, each student in the textile design department was provided with a particular size of 12 x 12 inches in order to join them all together to create a huge individual piece. As a result a larger-than-life interactive installation called ‘Circles of Love’ was produced using 100 denim tote bags, sewn out from denim which is currently on display at the Tollinton Block NCA.

The NCA VC praised the diverse array of works produced by Graf and encouraged young students who took part in the valuable project. He said that these projects are indeed very significant to generate awareness regarding environmental issues that we are dealing with in current times. The exhibition was a happening event and welcomed a number of guests from every walk of life.

Sharing her working experience in Pakistan Graf told Bol News, for me, this Artist-in-Residence programme at NCA is a great experience! I have met so many, creative and super helpful people who have all been very supportive. I´m very thankful for this opportunity. Talking about the professional attitude of NCA students Graf said, it was my experience that the students participated in my workshops with great enjoyment and motivation. The idea was to give new value to waste material by finding creative ways to explore its properties. This resulted in many wonderful new products that can be seen in the exhibition. I had many fruitful conversations with the students and it is always also a mutual learning. It was very exciting to see what great development the students have made in this short time.

Commenting about the potential of Pakistan’s art, Graf said, “I have met many outstanding artists and visited their studios during my stay here in Pakistan. I see a very high quality and seriousness in their work. The National College of Arts has shaped many magnificent artists in the past. It should have more visibility worldwide in the future and I will definitely spread this message in my circles.

When asked about the importance of cultural exchange programmes, Pakistan artists should also get the chance to go abroad to work with international artists to which Graf replied, yes, because cultural exchange helps a lot in learning new perspectives. As artists, we are used to constantly questioning ourselves and our society. It’s important to know who we want to be in relation to our environment and to express that in our artistic work. It’s about constantly questioning and evolving ourselves. International exchange with other artists and institutions can make a valuable contribution to this.

Speaking to Bol News, the VC explained the nature of this programme and explained how beneficial it is proving to be for Pakistan artists and art students. This programme is unique and NCA is the only institution in Pakistan that provides the best opportunity to students, faculty and fellow artists an unparalleled experience/ exposure of the world to work with resident artists coming from across the World. NCA provides airfare, accommodation, work spaces and art materials to the guest artists and scholars. We can see a great impact of this programme which is reflected in the work of our students and artists.

Maintaining this, the NCA VC further said, “NCA has started this programme some time ago with a vision to engage artists from all over the world to come here for an artist residency which definitely has been a very fruitful experience for us. Many such exchanges have taken place since then and we have received a lot of positive feedback from the artists who came to NCA.”

Commenting on working with international artists and scholars, NCA VC said, the residency welcomes people from diverse cultures so we give complete freedom to the artist who joins the residency to mingle with and provide our students necessary experience in the form of workshops or seminars. We make sure that students also get a chance to learn and explore new ways of art making and get enough exposure from the artist coming here. Adding to this VC further said, it is very significant these days to seek new avenues for all the students who want to grow professionally as the world has become more globalised.

Talking about the improvement aspect since the initiation of this programme VC Jaffery said, students are always in a learning process and there is obviously a room for improvement as you go along with that. We have seen that our graduates are contributing too many different fields in the country after they gain enough knowledge and experience.

Elaborating the positive impact of this programme on Pakistan’s image VC Jaffery added, definitely the most important thing is that we spread a message of peace and tolerance through art and design ventures such as this one. “We already have artists working at different forums who are working to promote a positive image of Pakistan and we hope that this will continue in the future as well.”