A SPIRITUAL RETURN HAMRA ABBAS Laura Egerton delves into the practice of Hamra Abbas and reveals the artist’s visual juxtapositions between seemingly disparate elements.

really am so excited about this show,” artist Hamra intricate 3D models and videos of craftsmen bringing the finished products to life. “IAbbas told me as we spoke over Skype at 1am during Ramadan about her Bodies marks a homecoming for the artist. For the first time in seven years second solo exhibition, Bodies, at Lawrie Shabibi, which opens this month. “I Abbas has been in her native for an extended period: the works are feel this body of work has really come together, despite the diversity of sources both physically made there and intrinsically about her experiences of middle- and references employed.” The bustle of the bazaar was audible as we class religiosity in Pakistan. Time permitting, she hopes to have an open chatted, as were the calls she received on her mobile with updates on the studio before the works are shipped to Dubai. Despite her years abroad (she production of the new sculptures that form the bulk of the show. She tells still commutes regularly to Boston, USA, where she is based half the time) me it has been an experimental process from the very beginning. For months Abbas has settled smoothly back into the artistic community of Lahore. She is she has been working on the design and production of the pieces, often with currently an advisor for postgraduate students at the . 12-hour stints closely supervising each cut and indentation. She shows me For artists in Pakistan, producing and teaching go hand in hand.

120 PROFILE Opening pages: Installation view of Ka’aba Pictures 2,4 and 6. 2013. Archival pigment prints mounted on dibond. Dimensions variable. Facing page: Detail of Plastic Flowers 1. 2016. Shisham wood, oil paints. Dimensions variable. This page: The Piece Might Be Abstract, But its Made of Rubber and Looks Like the Male Organ. 2012. Stained glass. 90 x 60 cm.

In short, the study reflects on the confluence, or the nature of interplay, between commerce and devotion.

A RETURN For years Abbas has been planning her Lahore studio, now fully functional It is refreshing to see Abbas returning to Lahore for both inspiration and and incorporated within her house there. The close proximity provides the production. Her career to date has followed a more international route than time and space to produce work on a larger scale. Evidence of that skillset is many of her compatriots; she has frequently shown in Germany and Turkey, as apparent throughout her practice as she moves effortlessly between media, well as further afield in the diverse art scenes of Azerbaijan, China and South in recent years working with paper, plasticine and stained glass, with the final Korea, and has enjoyed residences with renowned institutions such as the finished object often two or three steps removed from the artist’s own tactile Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston. She is no newcomer to the UAE, relationship with the material. Due to space and budget constraints whilst either. After winning the Sharjah Jury Prize in 2009, the same year that she working abroad, it has been nearly 10 years (and her series Lessons on Love) was nominated for the Jameel Prize, Abbas returned as a winner of the Abraaj since Abbas worked to the scale that she is today. Group Art Prize in 2011 and has frequently shown at Art Dubai with Green At the heart of the exhibition are two new parts of a series entitled Barakah Cardamon, and more recently, with Lawrie Shabibi. Her first solo exhibition Gifts, inspired by her Umrah pilgrimage to Mecca with her husband in 2012. with them two and a half years ago displayed both the breath of material with The work is based on the objects sold in the markets adjacent to the two holy which she works and the combination of humour and personal responses to , which reflect the religious iconography of the area and yet which religious practice. are fundamentally commercial gifts and souvenirs for the visiting pilgrims. In

121 122 Facing page: Barakah Gifts 1. 2014. Fibreglass. 365 cm. This page: Installation view of Artists (left to right) Beuys, Abramovic, Bourgeois and Close. 2014. Archival pigment print mounted on dibond. 120 x 80 cm each. PROFILE Images courtesy the artist and Lawrie Shabibi, Dubai.

short, the study reflects on the confluence, or the nature of interplay, between mundane. “Sometimes a work takes many years from its inception as an idea, commerce and devotion. Barakah Gifts I is currently being installed at the to the point when it is actually created,” the artist explains. Two wall-mounted, American Embassy in Islamabad, part of the Art in Embassies programme. With painted wood carvings work as a pair. Plastic Flowers I is particularly private, her giant water bottle or flask monumentalised in fibreglass with reflective inspired by a picture she took in her mother-in-law’s house of a portrait with metallic surface and intricate detailing, Abbas has created an icon out of prayer beads and a stalk of plastic flowers casually hung over the frame.Plastic an everyday item carried by pilgrims containing holy water (zam zam). In Flowers II is an example of her observance of everyday street life in Lahore, plastic production and in the show are a clock and penholder. flowers stuck with Scotch tape underneath a surveillance camera in an ATM One Prayer Rug, any colour is a rare readymade piece by Abbas but fits booth. Both have been timelessly preserved and monumentalised, giving the perfectly alongside the sculptures. A display of travel prayer rugs bought by original objects a weight and presence that goes far beyond the casual. the artist on Amazon, they are a familiar object she grew up with, decorated Public sites of social and religious practice are under immense threat in with a cube representing the Ka’aba. Each silk rug is made in a single colour, the Pakistan today. Sweet and Savoury, a photograph displayed in a duratrans collection forming a varied palette. As the artist recalls, “Prayer rugs depicting lightbox, is a poetic image of two small piles of rice left on a security barrier at the Ka’aba have recently fallen out of favour. In the past such images were the entrance to one of the oldest and most revered () in quite common. Perhaps this is due to changing religious sentiments towards Lahore. “Data Darbar is an 11th-century tomb visited by people from far and any kind of imagery, even if it is the Ka’aba itself. Finding them in the markets near the vicinity on a daily basis,” Abbas tells me. “Food is distributed every day of Lahore today can be a task.” The piece recalls an incident on Umrah when for the visitors, but the rice on the edge of a security barrier was left for birds.” a woman handed the artist a prayer rug in a small bag as she was leaving the The artist grew up close to the complex. In 2010, it was subject to a of the prophet, so it is in a way also a personal Barakah gift. The one terrorist attack which killed scores of people. Equally moving are groupings reference in the exhibition to the artist’s fascination with representations of the of hyper-realist painted sculptures carved in rosewood, depicting piles of Ka’aba, this piece is a neat throwback to her first Lawrie Shabibi show two and sandals. A familiar sight, but not one to routinely mull over: they are often all a half years ago, Ka’aba Picture as a Misprint. one can see on the ground when looking at the exterior of a shrine, mosque or temple. Common practice in the region dictates that visitors remove their shoes before entering a holy site or even a home – a marker of segregation CAPTURED MOMENTS between inside and outside, clean and dirty, religious and profane. Abbas has Each piece in the exhibition is inspired by a particular moment the artist has always created important, cerebral work that is exquisitely executed. Bodies experienced and documented by means of a photograph: images or objects not only confirms her skills and insights but also embodies a further element collected over years, a group of memories often random and seemingly of empathy that makes this exhibition all the more compelling.

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