Written by: Noor Ul Ain
Posted on: April 05, 2018 | 
| 中文
The group together with the hosts and team of Art of Small Talk (Hurmat, Sabahat and Zehra)
The Biennale has come to Lahore with two weeks of contemporary art exhibits taking over the city. However, while there has been due excitement and coverage of the Biennale events, several collaborative events operating on the periphery may have missed the public eye.
One such event was hosted by the team of Art of Small Talk, comprising of Hurmat, an interdisciplinary artist and art educationist, Sabahat, a textile designer and researcher, and Zehra, an architect. This event, titled Pecha Kucha, is part of a Tokyo based design format that allows 20 images and 20 seconds per image, for each of its speakers. The purpose of the Pecha Kucha (Chit Chat) format is to bind designers to a restricted time frame who, as Sabahat lightly notes, “Tend to talk too much.” The theme for this installment was “Creatives in the City,” purposely left open ended so as to incorporate artists, designers, architects and curators in its oeuvre
First up was Ayesha Jatoi, a miniature artist who attempted to question the traditional modes of creating a miniature work and the construction of images. The work she chose to show relied heavily on experimentation with text. Whether working with text printed onto huge white walls, or small aab e zamzam bottles with text on them stuck across a wall, Jatoi believes in a marriage between text and miniature, and her work is testament to this. Another work of hers, that uses text as a provocative and political tool, is a huge white billboard that she placed in a crowded market near Data Darbar that simply asked, “How many women do you see here?” Hence, Jatoi is able to spark controversy, provoke debate and inspire a plethora of meaning through the subtle art of text across different canvases.
Gauher Aftab was another artist, who attempted to question the foundations of our preconceived notions about jihad, and the religion that propagates it. Aftab, the co-founder of CFx comics, hopes to counter terrorism through his graphic novels. Having grown up in Saudi Arabia, Aftab was conditioned into thinking, by a teacher who was a former mujahid, that jihad necessarily means having a Kalashnikov rifle in one hand and the Quran in the other. However, after the APS attack, Aftab realized how warped this way of thinking was, and how easily young people could get radicalized. Hence, CFx comics attempted to “reach across the aisle,” borrowing Aftab’s words, to the people who need to be de-radicalized through creating sympathetic characters that reflect the nuances of terrorism and radicalization, breaking away from the simple narrative of good and evil.
Pecha Kucha’s artist line up explored some politically charged, thought provoking and multi-layered work. However, it also brought quick witted humor and satirical commentary on society to the audience, through the work of Saba Khan. Khan’s paintings are made by using, what may be called, low- grade materials like glitter, glass and crystals, to create works that comment on the quality of local aesthetics. Khan wishes to explore, as she puts it, “where our bad taste comes from.” Through using the metaphor of cake, Khan also lay bare the layers of class divides that give way to the politics of food - for example, what food and aesthetic accompanies a middle class lifestyle versus that of a home belonging to the elite.
These artists barely cover the tip of the iceberg of the immense talent, diversity and knowledge exhibited and presented by the artist line up at Pecha Kucha. Hence, it would be an injustice not to mention the rest of the presenters, which included Rabeya Jalil, with her inspiring work that was built around utilizing the storytelling abilities of children as a force of tabdeeli or change. Rabbya Naseer’s work drew parallels between lived life and art practices, while also exploring the themes of gender, nationality, hospitality and in turn, identity. Usman Saeed displayed his work “Gardenfinds,” a 6 minutes 20 seconds long video of a garden, perhaps one of the most interesting works presented at the show. Saulat Ajmal’s work explored questions of tradition, culture, politics and nature, while the almost hypnotic talk by Waqar Aziz, an architect and academic, suggested an alternative way of experiencing the city through extending care and concern to the streets and its inhabitants.
While ample art has been displayed, curated and viewed in the past two weeks of Lahore Biennale, Pecha Kucha brings conversations about art to the forefront, so that we don't just passively consume art, but listen to it, think about it and maybe even create it.
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