Abdul Jabbar Gull and Munawar Ali Syed at Art Chowk - June 2009
By Ian Findlay
While the contemporary Pakistani art world is an increasingly lively one—with more of its artists’ works being show at international exhibitions and art fairs—it remains largely at the edge of the consciousness of Asian art for most people. This is unfortunate indeed.
Behind the daily headlines of political and religious tensions there are artistic voices of reason that need to be heard. Abdul Jabbar Gull and Munawar Ali Syed are two such voices. They speak clearly and boldly to the world through their paintings, drawings, and sculptures as is evident in their most recent two-person show entitled Peace, Now.
Abdul Jabbar Gull’s group of figurative wood sculptures includes individuals, pairs and a family group. His untitled works are small, anonymous figures staring out at the world. His lines are simple; the angled form of their bodies and their round sightless faces are reminiscent of ancient figurative stone sculptures.
The thin bodies, almost touching, suggest a deep emotional tension that cannot be assuaged by touch alone. This is clear in his Family where the three figures stand resolutely alone even as they are together as a unit.
Munawar Ali Syed’s sculptures, which make up his Overloaded Series, are also of wood. Like his mixed-media-on-paper works, there is a surreal quality present in his sculptures through the juxtaposition of body and object. Syed’s geometry is more complex than Gull’s.
Syed defines his faces clearly, but their expressions are essentially without emotion. The heads are bent to the side or lying flat, made immobile by odd elliptical forms attached to their heads. These forms suggest bullets, cones, eggs and even the stripped body of a bee or wasp. The lack of facial expression suggests complete submission to the external world.
The sculptures of both Gull and Syed are thoughtfully realized. Their very simplicity is a great part of their strength, which allows the viewer to read into them that which they will. These are disconcerting, uncomfortable works in which personal pain and an inability to escape from a difficult situation resonate forcefully.
Reprinted with kind permission of World Sculpture News Spring 2009. Copyright (c) Asian Art Press (International) Limited 2009.
