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Thursday March 28, 2024

Through Tamaam, Ghulam Mohammad hopes to unlock various emotive,

By News Desk
March 09, 2020

Ghulam Mohammad’s practice places itself at the intersection of the range and limitations of language, both as a visual, formal construct as well as a conveyor of meaning.

Citing the artist, the Canvas Gallery that is hosting his solo exhibition titled ‘Tamaam’ until March 12, states that this intersection is characterised by the tension that exists between the capacities of language to both impart from as well as potential to meaning.

“It is this interplay between from and potential, orientation and performance that is the primary motive force behind the process of the practice as well as the work it produces.

“As a performing phenomenon, language operates on both the individualistic as well as communal plane, situating the individual in a particular context and growing the vocabulary of that language around the individual. When multiplied, the interactions of these various contexts individuated habits with respect to language can at times, understandably, be overwhelming.

“However, it is the variegated nature of this enterprise that is suggestive of an approach in which these concerns are received as elements which, when rearranged, repositioned and reorganised, have the capacity of growing an internal structure and logic specific to the work in question but capable of reflecting on a larger sphere of concerns.

“The act of spatially repositioning linguistic conceptions and forms is then an approach characterised by making thorough rediscovering. It is the hope that in the rediscovery of the phenomenon, the various emotive and formal potentials of language can be unlocked anew.”

Mohammad received his Bachelor’s in Fine Arts degree from Lahore’s Beaconhouse National University (BNU) in 2013 and his Master’s in Art Education from the same institution in 2017.

He has held solo exhibitions in New York (‘Gunjaan’ at the Aicon Gallery in 2019), London (‘Peeha’ [Grind] at the Grosvenor Gallery / Canvas Gallery in 2018), Karachi (at the Canvas Gallery in 2017, and ‘Kutub-Khana’ at the Sanat Initiative in 2015) and Lahore (‘Chaan-Been’ at the Rohtas II in 2016).

He has also been part of several group exhibitions: in 2019 at the India Art Fair, represented by the Anant Art in New Delhi; in 2018 titled ‘Pale Sentinels: Metaphors for Dialogues, A Tribute to Priya Ravish Mehra’, curated by Salima Hashmi, at the Aicon Gallery; in 2018 titled ‘The Sacred?’ at the O Art Space in Lahore, titled ‘2x2’ at the Rohtas II / the Lahore Literary Festival, titled ‘Sleepless Constellations’, curated by Salima, at the 1x1 Gallery in Dubai, and at the Alhamra Arts Council in Lahore; in 2017 at the Studio Seven in Karachi, and at the AAN Gandhara Art Space in Karachi; in 2015 at the Lahore Literary Festival; in 2014 titled ‘Four and Other Elements’ at the Canvas Gallery, and titled ‘Incubator’ at the Sanat Initiative.

Since 2017 he has been permanent faculty at the School of Visual Arts and Design at the BNU. Before that he was visiting faculty there. In 2012 he did a landscape painting at the Quetta Staff College, and in 2011 he did a sculpture project at Peeru’s Cafe in Lahore. In 2009 he did the set design at the Pakistan Public Service Commission Office in Lahore, and in 2008 he did the backdrop of the Sibi Mela in Balochistan.