Written by: Hamad Ali
Posted on: June 03, 2020 | 
Life in Quarantine 2
With the world in the grips of a global pandemic, the likes of which we haven’t seen in over a century, it can be easy to fall into spiraling ennui. However, despite (or maybe because of) the anxiety and panic we’re all grappling with, we are driven to create things as an outlet for these feelings. Within the past three months, Instagram has been a refuge for creative people who are enervated from the hullabaloo of negative messages.
With the closing of art galleries, artists have turned towards Instagram to showcase their works, making it evermore personal, relatable, and with an exploratory whimsy. It is interesting to see the ways in which we try to connect while physically distancing. From acerbic memes to uplifting stories, social media is surging with such things that offer inane distractions and inspire hope during this crisis.
Umair Anwar is one such creative individual, who is a communications designer by education and an advertiser by profession, having spent more than nine years in the field. Based in Lahore, he currently runs his own startup by the name of, ‘We Are Transmedia’ and continues to develop his art practice, which is both accessible and thought-provoking.
Realizing the social importance of digital mediums of communication, his artistic practice evolved into employing visual narratives and illustrations to convey his messages. Becoming the first recognized GIF artist in Pakistan, he practices with GIF (short for Graphics Interchange Feature, a small looping video without sound) as a medium to explore the diverse aspects of human nature.
Anwar uses mundane objects, creating motion to bring out something proactive and meaningful that resonates with everyone. His quirky images of inanimate things with slight movements, can develop layers of meanings for the viewer. This amalgam of movement and stillness, silence, and sound, encapsulated in a GIF format, acts as a site of struggle to situate one’s creative energies towards lighter things in life. His work makes us step back from the immutable life where we try to be productive, and aids us to slow down and experience the intricacies of the mundanities which we actively try to obliterate.
Among his plethora of relatable GIFs, his Life in Quarantine series hits home during these times. This lockdown has slowed down everything, has aided us to reflect on our present, and anticipate a future taken entirely over by digital transformation. The repeating concept in this series is a blockade, interruptions, and the motif of a brick wall, which alludes to a life trapped in quarantine.
The devices, through which one can explore the world around them, are covered with a red brick wall pattern. One feels trapped, and cannot see outside or peek inside. The separation is clear and real. This depiction, subtly but surely, hints at the situation of the human mind trying to block-out the negative energies from the outside world, while struggling to stay optimistic as much as one can. This lack of exchange between the outside and inside is what aids one to reflect on their immediate surroundings, and take everything in bit by bit.
Anwar’s illustrations are vibrant and simple, with clean lines and saturated hues. His treatment of perspective and space creates an eerie atmosphere in the composition. Continuing his motif of the blockade, his treatment of sound is simple but exudes interruption: the TV’s visuals are distorted, the signage light is fluctuating, the person is trying to write something, the phone is left ringing. Everything seems imperfect and incomplete, just like the lockdown situation.
Now that life outside of quarantine is steadily turning into a distant memory, Anwar does not aim to be disruptive with his art. Instead, he aims to be relatable and project a very simple yet nuanced way of conversing with people through the subtleties of mundane life.
To see the gifs, check out Umair’s Instagram here.
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