Amin Gulgee’s ‘One Night Stand’ celebrates birth, marriage and death
“I am very excited about it [the performance],” says Amin. “Riwhyti: One Night Stand will contain performances that I believe are a big part of our lives such as death, marriage and life itself.” The three predetermined events that take place in a person’s life, birth, marriage and death, were vividly reproduced and became the crux of Amin’s show.
As the evening commenced, 21 carefully constructed performances took place simultaneously in different parts of the Amin Gulgee Gallery. A man (Muzzumil Ruheel) with a black umbrella, tagged along with some people (celebrities) as they walked past him — depicting forced friendships people make to achieve their hidden agendas.
In the front courtyard, ex-model Frieha Altaf was seen giving Fifteen Minutes of Fame to people and gestured to them to come and autograph the canvas as well as speak to the camera crew.
Ayessha Quraishi was seen painting away on a canvas in the main gallery, called The Sensual Orchestra Plays Live, and a little distance away in a corner, was Syed Ammad Tahir orchestrating another mysterious act, Mirror Mirror on the Wall. Sitting in solitude, Tahir’s innate desire to be a woman came to life as he applied heavy eye make-up and immersed into his murky inner self.
In another corner, Angeline Malik enacted With Oneself as she sat by a projector screen and watched herself conduct various scenes from a bystander’s point-of-view. On the stairwell next to her was Fayez Agariah; he sat inside a suitcase and frantically stitched pieces of small fabric to his outfit.
Nimra Buchas’s Swimming Pool act was an intriguing one as it was well-narrated, interactive and touching. Whoever approached her, was handed headphones through which she narrated her tale; as a swimming instructor, she dedicated her lifetime to the pool and after 30 years, she was ready to tie the knot with a man younger than her; sadly she is mocked by others and this adds to her fears.
Seated on a thakhat were Raania Azam Khan Durrani and Saba Iqbal in Mystery Nivala; dressed in traditional ghararas, they handed out paan to their audience as they reproduced the old days of warmth, tradition and culture.
“It is fascinating how Amin Gulgee puts everything together,” said Shanaz Ramzi, GM Publications and Press Relations of Hum Network, who was impressed with the performance. For visitor Zaheer Kidvai, the evening bore a welcomed classic touch as he said, “Bohot hi acha tha.”
But a few members of the audience were left rather perplexed by this art form. “I am still trying to figure out what this is all about,” said director Saqib Malik. “But I think it’s good to be lost at times. In places like these, one needs to touch or get a sense of feel regarding whether it’s all real or not.”
Others present were there to support their loved ones such as writer Mohammad Hanif, whose wife Nimra Bucha performed Swimming Pool. “I don’t know [about other performances]. I only know about one act,” says Hanif, referring to his wife.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 18th, 2013.
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Source: tribune.com.pk
Searching- Through The Looking Glass
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Source: Architecture Design Art
Imaging Cities
Some of the participants have accustomed themselves to new kind of lines and colours; but for some, this is an experimental and learning process, like learning of a new language. Even the viewer has to learn this foreign language in the realm of art before he can judge their expressiveness and quality.
An interesting exhibition of image, sound, word and video was held at Amine Gulgee Gallery for two days only (February 20 and 21, 2011) attracting a large number of audience. The show was born of conversations held over nineteen months in and between cities including Cairo, Cape Town, Karachi, New York, and Paris. Amin Gulgee Gallery and SPARCK (Space for Pan-African Research, Creation and Knowledge) played key roles.
A two women team, artist and academic Kadiatou Diallo and Dominique Malaquais, founded SPARCK in 2007. SPARCK is a Pan-African initiative of experimental multi disciplinary residencies, workshops, symposia, exhibitions, publications and performances focused on innovative, ethically driven approaches to urban space. SPARCK engages with creators working in image, sound, word and video, installation, transient architectures, cutting edge technologies and emergent media on projects that question the status quo, refusing clichés and easy answers.
Amin Gulgee Gallery, established in 2000, bears the name of its founder, who is internationally known as a multimedia artist. Shows held at the gallery are anything but conventional. Amin and his gallery are not pushed about in being fashionable or palatable. As he says, “Objects and exhibitions displayed here are simultaneously explosive and imbued with spirituality, brash and private in extremes. They reflect deeply held views about the value of art as an absolute necessity- a challenge that brooks no limits.”
The show at Amin Gulgee Gallery followed the line of the collaborative galleries in letter and spirit. The artists engaged in the show used the latest tools of expression- audio-video technology, very suitable to the subject. Despite the use of new tools for expression, the inner man in the participating artists did not abandon the spiritual aspect of life and the world. As a modern artist Gulgee, through his curatorial show, gave expression to his inner vision of man and the spiritual background of life and the world.
In fact, the exhibitions at Amin Gulgee Gallery, specially the current one- “Imaging Cities” are thought provoking and raising questions. Gulgee calls the current show a South-South dialogue, which highlights the extraordinary wealth of urban practices shaping the present and future of the world full of countless possibilities. Herein Gulgee gathered around works by fifty artists hailing from some twenty countries of Africa and South Asia. All are world travelers in body or mind. They possess a universe of imagination and implementation. Their fundamental goal is to dream and build through art new, unexpected and sustainable futures in cities across the globe.
The views, aesthetics, and takes and counter-takes, however, are far from uniform. A great deal of variety and at times, elements of contradiction appear in the works opening doors for dialogue among the artists as well as artist and the viewer. This complexity has been the core of the curatorial project. These works are individual in the manner of representation, the style and quality. Some of the participants have accustomed themselves to new kind of lines and colours; but for some, this is an experimental and learning process, like learning of a new language. Even the viewer has to learn this foreign language in the realm of art before he can judge their expressiveness and quality. One can say that in this exhibition the art has gone across the limits of visual alone; it addresses man’s hearing and reading ability as well.
While judging a work of art, the critic’s mind tends to make comparisons. For instance an excellent video show of a nude male expressing agony through the twists and turns of the body in slow motion takes the mind to a painting where the painter puts hours to create something of similar depth and feeling. In this case, honesty demands that no such comparison should be sought as the two artists have used absolutely different tools. Video offers a wider space to the artist for expressing his thought than a canvas or paper to the painter challenging his capabilities.
Central to the project as well, has been a determination to evacuate clichés. Africa and South Asia both suffer from preconceived notions imposed upon them by the so-called First World – easy, inaccurate portraits of exotic, primitive and chaotic otherness. Also in need of evacuation are clichés that Africa and South Asia visit upon one another – preconceptions as to race, religion, social and economic class that result in profound and damaging misunderstanding. Here the viewer can make an assessment as to how for the artists have been successful in achieving the goal through the use of modern technology.
Source: pakistanartreview.net
Metallic Forces
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Source: The Peak
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