A journey from nothingness to something meaningful and concrete

Rahim Baloch uses colours, activities and wonders of nature to express human ideas of love, longing and desire intermixed with solitude, loneliness and nostalgia, according to the Chawkandi Art Gallery, where the artist’s works are being exhibited under the title ‘Hit me with a flower’ until Thursday, August 5, 2021.

“My work revolves around being involved and lost in a trance, a state of mind where words are worth nothing any more, the point where this condition rejuvenates one’s self,” the gallery quotes Baloch as saying.

“It merely separates one from all the painful factors without escaping from reality. A journey which starts from a vacuum and ends at filling out the blankness.” His entire work shows this transformation in which he creates something which itself is a vacuum and it converts this nothingness into something meaningful and concrete.

“For instance, if we look at something with concentration we start noticing different images and patterns in it. The design merges into a filling, making an attempt to give a meaningful image to the void in which it exists.”

It is very similar to when we look at clouds and see different forms and shapes in them, he explains. “In a similar manner I see all those things which cause the emptiness and vacuum in my life.”

From that point onwards, this practice pacifies him and becomes a source of calm and solace. “With the realisation that I can no longer refute my feelings and emotions, I give them form, shape and a face in my work.”

For over three decades the Chawkandi Art Gallery has curated and nurtured the most compelling artists. Its groundbreaking exhibitions and gatherings have created new forms of expression, even heralding the contemporary miniature art movement with its first group show, and was the sole gallery in Pakistan for the late, iconic Zarina Hashmi.

Founder Zohra Husain, a doyenne of the Karachi art scene, brought a cultural sophistication to Chawkandi, creating a hub that ignited and inspired, a space where stalwarts like artist Zahoorul Akhlaq and architect Habib Fida Ali could assemble.

Since 1985 Chawkandi has been instrumental in facilitating and supporting collectors and buyers, steering them and artists in interesting linkages. The gallery exclusively represented the works of Zahoorul Akhlaq and Shahid Sajjad.

Chawkandi Art continues to be a reliable dealer of authentic works of masters such as Chughtai, Sadequain Ahmed Pervaiz, Bashir Mirza, Colin David and Ismail Gulgee among others.