Through the ages

Imran Ahmad solo art exhibition wins hearts

LAHORE: A solo art show titled ‘Pro(re)gress’, featuring 16 paintings and five sculptures by a self-taught artist Imran Ahmad Khan at Art Soch Gallery in Gulberg, Lahore, has become the talk of the town. The show was loved by art critics, enthusiasts, collectors, and people from all walks of life.

When asked about Imran’s art pieces, acclaimed artist and show curator Mariam Hanif Khan, told Bol News that the work is deeply rooted in the region’s history. Artefacts discovered during excavations demonstrate how the region’s forefathers used to look, live, and celebrate.

”Through his research, the artist discovered symbolic stories in the form of figurines, pottery, and jewellery from his own regional civilizations, such as Mehrgarh (5000 BCE) in Balochistan, Mohenjo Daro (3000 BCE) in Sindh, and Harappa (3000 BCE) in Central Punjab,” she explained.

For her, every object in his art holds a story and is a reflection of its culture. This exhibition transports the visitor to ancient times, which appear to be not so ancient because these archaeological finds depict sanitary systems that are still used in our modern lives.

”The findings show that survival and domestication were at the heart of life,” she concluded. Imran stated that his recent and current artworks are explorations into the cultivation of life forms that stem from artefacts such as figurines, food systems, and other human creations with material from across history into the present through the medium and act of painting. For him, the focus of his artwork is on the juxtaposition of materials and forms that leads to the catalysis of imaginations that draw from the past in order to point towards the dawn of imaginaries from an unrealized future.

Imran, who was born in 1974 in Lahore, also has fifteen years of teaching experience, both in the studio and in theory. Since the early 2000s, he has served as an adviser to the installation/3-D lab at the Mariam Dawood School of Visual Arts & Design (SVAD), Beaconhouse National University (BNU).

Imran’s kinetic installations and sculptural works are inspired by Lahore’s raw energy, summoning structures from the city’s colonial and multi-ethnic past as well as its fraught present. Since 2000, the artist has collected and transformed found objects from the city, examining and exposing the fractured apparatuses of the political, social, and economic state in which he lives.

Raised in a neighbourhood of the city known for its craft and small-scale recycling industries, the artist has presented solo exhibitions at major venues in Lahore as well as group exhibitions such as Resemble Reassemble at Devi Art Foundation, curated by Rashid Rana; ‘Crisis of History #3 Fight History’ (2015), Netherlands; and, most recently, ‘This Night Bitten Dawn’ (2016), India, curated by Salima Hashmi. In addition, Hoor Al Qasimi curated ‘Between Sun and Moon’ for the Lahore Biennale in 2020.

The writer is a journalist based in Lahore who reports on Politics, Economy and Militancy. He can be reached on Twitter @HassanNaqvi5