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Opportunities News Artists Galleries & Exhibitions Art Resources & Links Issue No. 20, February - May‘11 Newsletter Online www.vaslart.org Editorial Greetings colleagues and friends! With new collaborators joining Vasl, and the group extending its activities across Pakistan, the pace and scope of our activi- ties quickens and extends. As ‘The Rising Tide’ exhibition at The Mohatta Palace Museum approaches its closing weeks, the title of this exhibition takes on changing resonances. Across the Arab world, history-challenging events have been taking place, with many of our colleagues in the arts among those joining protests against repressive regimes in North Africa and the Middle East. Among them are Cairo-based Lara Baladi and Mohamed Abdelkarim, who both took part in the 2010 Vasl International Residency. Regretfully, Egyp- tian contemporary artist and teacher Ahmed Basiouny was among those tragi- cally killed during the protests in Cairo – protests that have bought monumen- tal changes to politics in Egypt and across the world. Adeel uz Zafar The manner in which protest movements have skipped from one terrain to from illustration work, (1998-2009) another across the Middle East, is testament to the power of strong networks led by personal meetings, cross-media communications and fraternal collabo- rations. In February, Vasl has hosted a ‘Knowledge and Skills Exchange’ resi- Artist In Focus Adeel Uz Zafar dency from Iranian artist Tooraj Khamenehzadeh. Tooraj is a coordinator of the This issue of the Vasl newsletter is the first to include a GS: Could you talk more about how working as an illustra- Rybon Art Centre in Tehran, (also part of the Triangle Network). As part of a featured artist, this time Karachi-based Adeel uz Zafar, tor has influenced the content of your imagery? Further, consolidating program that aims to secure the organizations which constitute whose largescale works on paper and canvas have been has illustration influenced the way that you produce your Adeel-uz-Zafar, ‘Mickey’ (detail), the Triangle Network, Triangle has initiated a series of residencies in which shown in group exhibitions through Pakistan since 2009 images? So how you decide to stage and render objects in Engraved-Drawing-on-Vinyl, 2011 coordinators share advice, troubleshoot their problems, and adopt new strate- when his first works of this kind were exhibited at the VM your work? gies for funding, organizing and sustaining activities. Gallery. Currently, Zafar’s work is on display at ‘The Rising Tide’, at the Mohatta Palace Museum in Karachi, and it has AUZ: Working as an illustrator has helped me to investi- Since October, Vasl has hosted a run of ARTshares and ARTstudies at venues been featured in two group shows in Karachi this Febru- gate and experiment with different mediums and tech- across Karachi. Fahim Rao and Scheherezade Junejo have joined the Vasl team ary. For the newsletter, he has been interviewed by niques. I strongly feel that the linear quality of my work, to support these and other projects, and visiting on a coordinator’s residency, Gemma Sharpe. along with its intricacy, has a direct relation to how I pro- London-based writer Gemma Sharpe is also working with Vasl. duced my illustrations. As an illustrator I also worked in a GS: Your work has become indentified for your method of 3D-animation post-production house. The way that the The next Vasl newsletter in June will include news on these and other upcom- ing activities, including the 2011 Vasl International Artists Residency, this year etching delicate lines into a black painted surface or pho- imagery in my work creates, on a two-dimensional sur- taking place in Islamabad in collaboration with Rhotas, and including artists tographic paper, and so revealing the white layer face, the illusion of a three-dimensional form, has a con- from Turkey, India, South Africa and Pakistan. beneath. Your images are the culmination of these thou- nection with the knowledge I obtained working on sands of scratches. When and how was this method intro- assignments at that time. The practice of making a grid, Warmest wishes from Adeela Suleman, Gemma Sharpe, Scheherezade Junejo, duced into your practice? concentrating on the light source, and the texture and Ammad Tahir, Fahim Rao, Hassan Mustafa, Owais Khan and Javed Patras. surface of the image, are all important when you’re Adeel uz Zafar at work AUZ: In my college days I used to work in a very conven- making a character seem ‘alive’ within a moving image. In Please send your news and feedback to [email protected] tional way with oil paints. But after graduating from my work I am dealing all of these aspects of image pro- National College of Arts (NCA) in 1998 I became involved duction in my own way. in the work of creating illustrations for children’s story- books and reading materials. While working on these To make my recent works I have bandaged a stuffed toy, assignments I got a chance to live in the comparatively observed the object in detail, and under a constant studio remote and isolated Northern areas of Pakistan and it was light, tried to transform my investigation of the object here that I began producing images on photographic into an artwork by etching it onto a surface. While illus- paper. I was making drawings etched into paper with a trating professionally I would work on children’s story- knife because in that context conventional art materials books and I was dealing with projects full of fascinating were hard to come by. In the beginning however, my characters, creatures and animals. The content of this drawings on the sensitive drawing paper were rather imagery, and those characters, keeps returning to my more whimsical and imaginative than they are now. artwork and I’ve been influenced in this regard. Adeel uz Zafar at work GS: You often use objects from a globalized ‘pop’ visual GS: Could you also talk about scale? You seem to be at Opportunities culture in your work – Mickey Mouse or King Kong, for your happiest when you're working on large surfaces. example. Despite their originating from a North American Participation: My City Stories visual culture, these objects can seem quite ‘neutral’ AUZ: I have been interested in working on a large scale Deadline: ongoing because of their global recognition. This leaves room for since my college days. Previously I would join small pieces In a series of participatory events, Vasl has teamed up with Faisal Anwar for the the interpretation of your work wide open. How impor- of work together in order to create large installations. Odd Spaces project that is taking place in various locations across North tant is it to you that a viewer recognizes that your Now I am reversing that process by zooming in on a small America and South Asia. As part of this ongoing project, Vasl collaborators are artworks also speak of a Pakistani culture and were object and rendering it on a large scale. There is a strong gathering narratives and anecdotes from across Pakistan to upload onto the created by a Pakistani artist? culture for making small artworks here – largely due to a ‘My City Stories’ website. The website is open for all to register and log their lack of space, commercial influences and institutional stories and images. Do take part in this extensive collaborative project! AUZ: Mickey Mouse and ‘The Kong’ are two fictional and limitations – so I do feel that in terms of display my works ageless characters that I have been familiar with since my are a visual treat for audiences. In production, every size For more information see: childhood. What they speak of history and the modern presents a challenge though working on a large scale http://www.vaslart.org/xhtml/artnow/events/My%20City%20Stories.html world in which I am living has provoked me to use them in involves such artistic and technical issues as surface ma- my work. Identity is important for me and I would like to nipulation, surface preparation, and the troubleshooting be viewed within the context of the historical, cultural, of physical logistics in the studio. While working on these social and political background that constitutes my origin larger images I literally have to do gymnastics! But these Workshop: ‘In conversation’, Wasanii International Artists’ Work- and the country in which I live. I cannot deny the fact that problems just make working on a large scale all the more shop, Kenya things are changing around us, and that we are living in a interesting for me! Deadline: 20th March, 2011 global and a metropolitan environment. It seems interest- ing, however, that if my work accepts ‘global images’ then GS: Where do you see the development of this work head- Artist Lara Baladi in Cairo, February 2010 From the 14th to the 28th August 2011, Kuona Trust Centre for Visual Arts will be it can also be looked at with a number of different per- ing now? holding its 11th International Artists’ Workshop. Applications are open for spectives. I am not orthodox or a fundamentalist and I’m artists and art writers working in all disciplines. Wasanii International Arists’ open to all new ideas. I can see a development in my work that is quite subtle, Workshop is part of the Triangle Network and this year’s theme is ‘In Conversa- and not perhaps obvious at first. The characters I repre- tion’. The emphasis this year is on discussion, dialogue and debate. Though Historically, Asian art has this tendency to demonstrate its sent are beginning to ‘unhide’ themselves – emerging artists will not be discouraged from making art, the goal of this workshop is to own craftsmanship, and it often has a linear quality – take from the bandages, for example.

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