Unlike a lot of other countries, Pakistan, by no stretch of imagination, has witnessed an 'excess' of art books. So a publication of a new art book is nearly a story in itself in the land of the pure. On top, add Salima Hashmi's name to a book and it becomes a 'must see'. 'The Eye Still Seeks' seems to extend its scope and importance even beyond that.
Visual beauty combined with the beauty of the word
Apart from the normal coverage of the contemporary art scene in the country, the book has beautifully combined some of the best visual artists in the country with the leading literary figures of the country. Mohsin Hamid has written on Rashid Rana's work, Kamila Shamsie on Naiza Khan's and Mohammad Hanif on Asim Butt's.
For those amongst us, who enjoy both visual beauty as well as the beauty of the word ...... this is a double treat indeed !
Enjoy !
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So Lounge: New age Pakistan
A lavishly-produced book on the contempoary art scene in the country
Faiza Butt’s Between Me And Yourself
There’s little serenity in contemporary art by Pakistani artists. In a country that has seen turbulence in both its political and social worlds since its very birth, the artists’ responses have been courageous, provocative even.
The Eye Still Seeks—Pakistani Contemporary Art: Edited by Salima Hashmi, Penguin Studio, 303 pages, Rs 4,999
As artist, critic and curator Quddus Mirza says in his write-up on artist Adeela Suleman, “the acts of violence are… deep- rooted in our ideas, psyches and selves”. That is what one sees in the works that have been published in this coffee-table book edited by artist and teacher Salima Hashmi (also, incidentally, the daughter of poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz).
The writings that accompany the images of artworks are a great introduction to Pakistani art in its most vibrant phase—there is Kamila Shamsie on Naiza Khan, Mohsin Hamid on Rashid Rana, Mohammed Hanif on Asim Butt and the provocative language of graffiti art, a recorded conversation between artists and partners Imran Qureshi and Aisha Khalid which touches, among other things, on domesticity and keeping the artist’s ego aside in their marriage, and Nafisa Rizvi on the hugely influential output of female artists.
This book was conceived along with a Pakistan contemporary art show in Delhi that has now been “indefinitely postponed”. The book is a reminder that that time has to come soon.
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