Pakistani artist makes New Yorkers see red

Red, the colour of passion, rage and pain. Red, a massive expanse of acrylic paint, splattered directly on the roof of the iconic Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York — 8,000 square feet of empty space, the perfect canvas. At a glance, the artwork comes across as haphazard blotches of paint, unstructured and almost uncomfortably personal. Only when you look closer will you see the motifs of lush foliage negotiating their way through the blood red paint. Violence, death, pain, grief, silence; its depth commands rapt attention.

Colour of passion

Imran Qureshi’s The Roof Garden Commission: Imran Qureshi, commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art is making waves across the international art circuit. A reflection of the artist’s perception of modern violence, the project was created in a matter of ten days. Viewers can walk on the artwork itself, interacting with the site-specific installation and possibly reliving their own grief.

“My work is a reflection of dialogues between life and death and my understanding of the ways of the world around me,” says Qureshi, specifically referring to his usage of red in a plethora of work since 2011. Responding to growing violence and bloodshed in Pakistan, the 41-year-old artist has been shocking people with paintings and installations that literally come across as bathed in blood.

His affiliation to the colour red, influenced by savage bombings in Lahore, hit its first high with the Sharjah Biennal in 2011. Qureshi, who studied at the National College of Arts in Lahore, created 13 miniature paintings that bring together the techniques of miniature art and modern themes to portray religious men engaged in everyday activities in a series called Moderate Enlightenment.

Targeted at the idea of fanaticism and the denial of anything contemporary (the subjects in these paintings wear cargo shorts or stylish socks), there is that burning question in mind: How does he get away with painting what one would term radical in Pakistan? “I started my career here and I wouldn’t have come so far if my countrymen did not appreciate my art. I am, at the end of the day, a regional artist. Even today, I exhibit my paintings and canvasses across the country,” says Qureshi.

Impressive works

The prolific artist won the Sharjah Biennial 10 Prize for his site-specific installation, Blessings Upon the Land of my Love — again, splashes of red spanning an empty rooftop, interspersed with intricate foliage, his favourite motif.

There is something intensely personal about all his art; ask him what or why and he shuts down. “Juxtaposing life and death — where the foliage is life, negotiating its way through dense patches of red, which represents death – is the focal point. I believe there is hope for a better world despite persisting violence,” says Qureshi.

A list of exhibitions and art shows he has been a part of over the past few years is impressive. There was the Venice Biennial earlier this year along with a solo exhibition at the Museo d’Arte Contemporanea in Rome. They Shimmer Still, a site-specific installation that Qureshi created for the Sydney Biennial in 2012 across the stairs and ramps of a deserted dock in Sydney Harbour received critical acclaim, as did his installation Wuzu at the Singapore Biennial in 2006 — he painted the walls and floors of the famous Sultan Mosque with elegant foliage in blue.

The Deutsche Bank project was inspired by Qureshi’s visit to old prisons in Sydney, his subsequent research on dungeons in ancient castles and the dynamics of beauty and violence. “There were people who lived in those prisons, for example, unable to stand for the rest of their lives because the ceilings were so low. I wanted to capture that kind of violence, that oppression of the human spirit in my work,” he muses. In his opinion, castles are beautiful and haunting, yet their dungeons hide cruel secrets.

But Qureshi’s favourite remains Time Changes, a series of site-specific installations that he created at the Qasr-e-Malika or the Queen’s Palace in Kabul in 2008 with his artist wife, Aisha Khalid. As blue-in-foliage, the works were set in tune with sunlight streaming through windows on the floors of the gallery, and their changing looks as the day wore on.

“My career has followed a path of natural, organic progression. Miniatures were my territory and people greatly appreciated the work I did before I moved out and began to experiment with other forms,” says Qureshi. An assortment of his miniature paintings created over the years at varying stages of his career is also on show at the Metropolitan Museum of Art currently. Two miniatures from his Moderate Enlightenment series were auctioned for $35,000 (about Dh1,29,000) at Christie’s and $21,000 by Saffronart.

A father of two, Qureshi has dabbled in video art as well, while abstract canvasses are a fairly new discovery. His artwork is his greatest form of political and personal expression but teaching at the National College of Arts in Lahore gives him an immense sense of satisfaction as well. “It is fulfilling to teach because you are learning so much at the same time. Contemporary art has massive global appeal and more people are looking towards Pakistan,” says Qureshi. ■