Unfinished work, Charcoal on Paper, 2′ x 3′, circa 2000, Karachi, Photo: MW
These works by Haikal were made when he was living in Karachi, Pakistan, from 1998 to 2002. I think the messy, busy and diverse experience of living in Karachi has coloured these works and Haikal’s overall sensibility as an artist relating to various subjects. In particular, his inquiries into human form take on a more bleak aspect compared to what I have seen in most Maldivian artists. This perhaps is a reflection of the relation between an individual and society in a bustling and sprawlingly large metropolitian city like Karachi, where more than 15 million people live and where there is a continuous influx of immigirants, as compared to a relatively small community like Male’. Since I also happened to live with Haikal during these years in Karachi, I also know that the visual art scene in Karachi is much more lively and dense than in Male, where there are no proper art schools and galleries and the culture of visual art is celebrated much less. There are many factors that has contributed to this, inluding the lack of a colonial legacy which ensured the establishment of galleries and art schools in the rest of the subcontinent including in India and Sri Lanka.
Some links to artists based in Karachi, Pakistan
Naiza Khan
www.ifa.de/galerien/zeitspruenge/dkhan_bio.htm
www.universes-in-universe.de/islam/eng/2005/027/img-05.html
www.universes-in-universe.de/islam/eng/2005/027/img-06.html
David Alesworth
www.davidalesworth.com
www.visualarts.qld.gov.au/linesofdescent/to_do/teachers.html
Moeen Faruqi
www.moeenfaruqi.com/latest2005/
Amin Gulgee
www.townhouse-gallery.com/artists/amin_gulgee.htm
Hassan Haikal Waheed, Flushing the Future, Oil on Board, 1 1/2″ x 2 ” 2003
Photo: MW
These are works selected from a nation wide competition that called for entries on the theme of Millenium Development Goals. The selected works were put on display at the National Art Gallery, Maldives in early March 2006. The competition was organised by the Maldives Ministry of Planning and National Development.
Photo: MW
Photo: MW
This is a work by Bangladeshi painter Nazlee Laila Mansur. I found her work very interesting. Her work comments on the status of women in Bangladesh society, and are done in a fantastic magic-realist style. In fact, I would have thought of it as a bit surrealistic, but I have come across the term magic-realilst being applied to her work. Usually its to literary works that I have seen ‘magic realism’ applied to, to the fictional works of authors such as Salman Rushdie, Gabriel Marquez, etc.
I also got a chance to meet her. Photo: MW
With Laila Mansur, with her paintings in the background (displayed at the Bengal Gallery, Dhaka).
Installation by Indonesian participant (detail), photo: mw
Installation by Indonesian participant, photo: mw
Work by a Bangladeshi artist, photo: mw
Three part painting by Sri Lankan artist Jagath Ravindra. Jagatth also received an honorary mention in the Beinnale. photo: mw
Some more works from the Dhaka Biennale, 2006
Mahbubur Rahman, Installation using video projection and plaster casts of figures, etc. (detail), photo: MW
Mahbubur Rahman, Installation using video projection and plaster casts of figures, etc. (detail), photo: MW
The Asian Art Biennale is an exhibition organised by the National Academy of Fine and Performign Arts, Bangladesh every two years. Participation is by invitation only. This years’ event was the 12th and artists from 31 countries participated in this year’s exhibtion. Parallel to the exhibition a seminar on Gender Perspectives in Art took place in which delegates from various countries read out papers.
