Phenomenology of Perception
The works of Gupta, Akhlaq and Jahan Nupur negotiate deeply layered relationships, positioning the formal and conceptual practice of drawing and collage to architectural space, abstraction as ornamentation and the gesture itself as both personal and political.
Parul Gupta's work focuses on the line and its relationship to formal and spatial negotiations within the architecture of built spaces. She will be presenting her series 'Extending the Line', a set of photographs, drawings on paper and on-site interventions that continue her experiments with the subtlety of bodily movement within the environments she constructs.
Nurjahan Akhlaq's recent body of work explores concepts of space and perspectives rooted in Islamic arts and architecture. While referencing this language of flatness, geometry and abstraction, Akhlaq attempts to create compositions that are inviting to the viewer's imagination. The 'up cycled' objects and surfaces that materialize in Lahore's old bazaars and vernaculars have long held her interest. This second tier economy, often where first world commodities/material are transformed or appropriated in form and function; she finds the history of these materials quite potent. The 'found images' utilized in the works are sourced from the Anarkali footpath bazaar, as well as second hand art books. Akhlaq is interested in creating a collision between the opulent, ornamental and stylized qualities of this language with a local vernacular to create compositions and articulations of space. These two divergent strains fused together create a tension that she hopes will elicit readings/narratives that are associative, formal, or playful.
