LAHORE > DELHI > MUMBAI > KARACHI > DUBAI
230 MB / EWO linked Lahore and Delhi as well as the cities’ inhabitants through the exhibition platform. EWO aggregated as it travelled, growing in each instance to include artists from the cities it visited along a path towards its terminus. This route traced a line that was poignant for both Pakistanis and Indians, as it connected cities with mirrored experiences of traumatic population exchanges during Partition. Within our contemporary context this route was also indicative of a particular directionality of the art market. This route and these cities were laden with spectral resonances and market possibilities that the exhibition’s format responded to by moving artists across the border for their events and conversations (visa and politics permitting). The show’s terminus in Dubai reflected more contemporary migration patterns, as the city has become an important hub for a range of subcontinental activities and industries, as well as a prevalent node in the wider region’s art market.
The artists’ PowerPoints in 230 MB / EWO ranged from more exploratory text based works to those mining image based archives. Several of the artists responded to the exhibition’s formal constraints by creating ‘events’ that took advantage of the absence of objects — for example, by working with the non-object based materiality of sound or by offering conceptual proposals in lieu of performance-based events. Other artists offered meditations on the form of the gallery talk or played with liveness and presence through Skype conversations.
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
A Conversation
Wednesday, 13 February 2013, at 6:30pm
Kavita Singh in conversation with Sadia Shirazi, 60 minutes
The discussion addressed the curatorial premise of the exhibition, digital culture, and artistic and economic networks. Two of the artists from the exhibition, Saira Sheikh and Mehreen Murtaza were also in attendance for the conversation.
Deinstall
Sunday, 10 February 2013, at 7pm
Saira Sheikh and Neha Mirza, event, 30 minutes
Saira Sheikh presented Deinstall with museum guide Neha Mirza during the opening. Sheikh and Mirza guided visitors through the exhibition and discussed aspects of artists’ oeuvres that touched upon prevalent concerns in the discourse around contemporary art from Pakistan.
Landscape Proposals: A Conversation
Sunday, 10 February 2013, at 8pm
Seher Shah and Kanu Agarwal, discursive event, 60 minutes
Shah’s PowerPoint functioned as a point of departure for this conversation between Seher Shah and architect and curator Kanu Agarwal. Shah’s slideshow took the presentation format as an opportunity to test the productive frictions produced by splicing together recent photographic works from Hinterland Structures (2011) and Mammoth: Aerial landscape proposals (2012). The conversation focussed on autonomous objects in the landscape, as well as the role of drawing within architectural proposals in negotiating scale and erasure.
Cross Connection
Sunday, 10 February 2013, at 6:30pm
Rabbya Naseer & Hurmat Ul Ain; Skype conversation, 120 minutes.
This event occurred during the opening of the exhibition and allowed visitors to eavesdrop or participate in an ongoing Skype discussion between the two artists, for whom this software is a primary tool of communication in their collaborations. Cross Connection expanded, in this instance, to accommodate any Lahori artists in the exhibition who were unable to attend the opening in Delhi (if their visas were not issued).
The Invisible Rain
Sunday, 10 February – 17 February 2013
Iqbal Geoffrey, event, variable duration.
Geoffrey’s event was a generous offer of clouds sent from Lahore that released invisible rain over Old and New Delhi.
7 Minutes of Occlusion
Sunday, 10 February – 17 February 2013
Mehreen Murtaza and AT (Azeem Tahir); sound piece played on Mp3 player, 7 minutes, looped.
Murtaza shared her slideshow with musician AT (Azeem Tahir) who then created an autonomous sound track as a response to her work.
Sunday, 10 February – 17 February 2013
Ayesha Jatoi, sound piece.
Jatoi created an experimental percussive sound piece consisting of the overlaid sounds of heartbeats.
PROJECTIONS
Iqbal Geoffrey, The Written Versus the Art Writ, 2013
PowerPoint slide show, 25 slides, silent; 5 minutes, looped
Seher Shah, Landscape Proposals, 2013
PowerPoint slide show, 42 slides, silent; 3 minutes 35 seconds, looped
Ayesha Jatoi, Images, 2012
PowerPoint slide show, 12 slides, silent; 1 minute, looped
Mehreen Murtaza, This Film Should Be Played Loud, 2012
PowerPoint slide show, 122 slides, silent; 11 minutes 24 seconds, looped
Rabbya Naseer and Hurmat Ul Ain, Reenactment, 2012
PowerPoint slide show, 28 slides, silent; 7 minutes, looped
Saira Sheikh, The Moral Rights of the Artist, 2012
PowerPoint slide show, 31 slides, silent; 2 minutes 3 seconds, looped