Review
Imran's poetics in form and colour in abstracts
by Ranga CHANDRARATHNE
Challenging the very concept of abstracts Imran Mir wants viewers to
invest meanings in his creations made of form and colour drawn from
diverse subjects such as geometry. Yet his is an unending quest for
redefining dimensions, three dimensions in two dimensional planes. It's
not mere abstracts correlating to nothing but encrypted visual poems to
be discovered by the viewers. In Imran's abstracts, objects like
pyramids, circles, whirlpools and matrix of crisscrossing lines can be
found. Among other things, his arts prove that sophistication can be
found in simplicity and in economy of colours. At times, profound
philosophies are encrypted in his expression of simplicity which goes
beyond the conventional Western notion of abstract paintings.
Exhibition of abstract paintings by Pakistani artist Imran Mir was
recently commenced at Paradise Road Gallery. The exhibition will remain
open till February 21.
Born in Karachi in 1950, Mir studied at the Central Institute of Arts
and Crafts before moving to Canada where he graduated from the Ontario
College of Art and Design in 1976. He then lived briefly in New York
before returning to Pakistan where he set up his own advertising agency.
However he continued to paint and to exhibit his work and was one of the
founders of the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture.Mir belongs
to a culture which boasts a long tradition of pattern-making and
abstract geometry, a culture in which mathematics and astronomy have
been of paramount importance. But it is also significant that he studied
and lived for many years in North America. It was in New York in the
late 1970s, then a hothouse of "abstract expressionism", where he
encountered the work of Pollock, Calder, de Kooning, Kline and Rothko,
and where he was invited to exhibit.
Imran perceives his works as a continuing series of experiments and
refers to his exhibitions and publications as "papers". In fact, each
work is a preposition presented for testing. These experiments are to
explore the confines of surface, line, colour and representation of
three-dimensional space on two dimensional planes.
For instance, the painting with a tunnel made of a grid of funnel and
red circle on the part of the frame and circle in lines, though looks
simple, is invested with layers of meanings. The black background can be
a universe and the red dot may represent the sun. Another painting where
the entire frame is covered with black smudges provides test of Imran's
complex poetic diction in paintings. His hallmark in recent paintings
seems to be the omnipresence of geometric style and the use of almost
primary colours. They sometimes are mess mash of forms, colours where
meanings are encrypted beyond the sensory plane. He tries to draw
multi-dimensional objects in two dimensional planes. Imran names each of
his creations as paper.
Considering his swirling whirlpool, Imran enlists viewers to deeply
engage in the paintings. Instead of the artist, it is up to the viewer
to invest meanings in Imran's creations. Rings upon rings in whirlpool
draw viewers deeper and deeper into the unknown realm.
It is certain that his abstracts would baffle the Sri Lankan
audience. However, they will be an enduring feast to deserving eyes.
"They are abstract aesthetic exercises which touch on questions of
beauty, harmony, discord, complexity and pattern. Although they are the
result of a process of careful distillation which seems to lead towards
minimalism, the apparent simplicity of what is offered invites a
complexity of response." Two things are striking, not to say surprising,
about his current series of paintings. First is their size. Here size
does matter and one is reminded that bigness is an absolute quality. The
sheer scale of the works invites a particular response, adding an
enhanced sense of three-dimensionality to even the flattest of canvasses
and inviting the viewer to enter inside the work. Second is the fact
that, in spite of an initial impression that these images have been
generated on a computer or a huge pantograph, they are in fact
meticulously hand-crafted objects like huge miniatures.
The current collection includes a series of diptychs in which one
canvass is paired with another. But these are not twins, often not even
siblings. They hang side by side like strangers caught together in
waiting room and engage in a muted but tangential dialogue.
My assumption, or guess, is that Mir does not intend his work to
carry any meanings or messages, values or emotions. He is not interested
in making political or social statements or influencing the thoughts or
actions of his viewers.
He invites you to explore his paintings, to experience them, respond
to them for what they are. He invites you to invent meanings, dream up
messages, attach values, feel emotions of your own, and then to stand
back and enjoy. One hopes that Colombo will accept the invitation and
rise to the challenge." remarks Prof. David Robson on Imran Mir's
paintings.
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