Amin Gulgee
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Amin GulgeeAmin GulgeeAmin GulgeeAmin Gulgee
  • Home
  • About
  • Sculpture
  • Public Work | Installation
  • Performance
  • Catalogues | Webinars
  • Amin Gulgee Gallery | Curatorial
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Paradise Lost –
ART FEST 2014
Frere Hall – Karachi

Paradise Lost was presented on the grounds of Frere Hall, a yellow limestone building in the Venetian-Gothic style that was the city’s town hall during the British Raj. The 40-minute performance began at dusk inside a ten-foot by ten-foot steel frame from which copper leaves were suspended, many of which appeared in Where’s the Apple, Joshinder? (The two performances occurred within weeks of each other.) The installation, which recalled a Chahar Bagh, the four-quadrant garden of the Moghuls, was sheathed on all sides by long strips of white muslin. Appropriate for its colonial setting, the work spoke of partition—not only of Pakistan from India, but of the sexes and of man and woman from the Garden of Eden. The work began with Haamid Rahim playing an original composition as Kashif Hussain, whose face and torso were painted in black arabesques, approached, bearing two lit copper torches created by Amin. He circumambulated the cube, lighting a ring of bottles stuffed with kerosene-soaked rags, then circled again, tossing marigolds from a rattan basket slung on his back. Hidden from view inside this wrapped structure were Amin and Joshinder Chaggar, dressed identically in unisex white coats and pants, both wearing silver masks comprised of irregular pieces of mirror. Amin sat motionless as Joshinder took one of the burning bottles and lit the muslin, which, wet with dew, slowly burned, producing clouds of black smoke. As the fabric smoldered, the nylon string suspending the leaves melt. One by one, the leaves crashed to the ground. Amid this shower of projectiles, the pair removed one another’s masks, frantically calling out the other’s name—Amin’s Muslim, Joshinder’s Sikh. They then faced off in a confrontational yet coordinated dance. Night fell, the muslin burnt to the ground and Amin and Joshinder left the ruined garden, heading off in different directions.

Paradise Lost
2014
40 min
Frere Hall – Karachi
Paradise Lost – 2014
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