Comments for The s.a. Project

Comment on The darker the night, the shinier the lights by the s.a. project

the s.a. project — Mon, 20 May 2013 14:23:29 +0000

Very cryptic! But from the tweets that followed, I now know it meant you loved the Zubeida Agha. Yes…very uff uff uff gorgeous.

Comment on The darker the night, the shinier the lights by karachikhatmal

karachikhatmal — Mon, 20 May 2013 07:00:52 +0000

UFF UFF UFF

Very difficult to articulate legible responses to that painting, so thanks and well did.

Comment on Naked – literally & figuratively by Sameera Raja

Sameera Raja — Wed, 15 May 2013 12:01:08 +0000

Glad you addressed a topic which is generally not discussed . However , to reply to your question as to which artists portray the male figure, immediately a few names barring the ones you mentioned, come to mind…Ali Azmat , Komail Aijazuddin , Muhammadali , Mughees Riaz and Salman Toor.You will notice they are all male .Does that mean female artists depicting males have been sidelined ? I think not . Did artists get recognition and patronage based on their gender in the past? I believe so yet I do not believe the same applies to the current scenario. The images in your article are mainly of works that have been displayed at relevant galleries locally.Most important galleries in Pakistan are run by females . To say that there is a bias towards showing male artists works over females would be factually incorrect , without even getting into the debate about why artists need to be differentiated on gender lines. An artist is just that…an artist.

Comment on Bonbon takes on Quddus Mirza – the LLF art talk fiasco by Nobody

Nobody — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 11:12:33 +0000

This is not hate mail. The author has given full justification for his negative views of QM, most of it is already known to a wide circle of artists. Although, no body dared to write about it. Can someone tell how a person of so limited intelligence can become an art columnist in a Sunday edition of a leading English daily in Lahore? Ask the Editor, FZ! His license to kill as an art critic stems from his position in the Fine department at NCA, where he played havoc with generation of tender minds with his twisted and heartless comedy. As as an aide to SH, who mentored him all his life, he was able to perpetuate a hegemony of a group of artists from Lahore, who controlled the Pakistani art world through galleries, press reviews and international shows. Shazia Sikander went solo after becoming rich and famous in US- and entered in a global art world of diaspora artists. At a personal level, QM suffers a deep seated inferiority complex which he acquired as a eager young man at NCA, who had come from a artisan family in a village, and was forced to survive in a engrezi mahul – where creativity is steeped in elitism. The harsh reality is a character of an artist intellectual whose judgements are colored by his prejudices- and sadly there is a long list of those. And my judgment is that he should be exposed to his peers!

Comment on Bonbon takes on Quddus Mirza – the LLF art talk fiasco by AQ

AQ — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 09:02:34 +0000

Finally someone had the guts to stand up and speak out against the narrow-minded, myopic world view of someone like QM.Thank you!

I hope more people will stand up and speak out against his brand of cronyism and nepotism. For too long his ilk have been systematically and unfairly shutting out artists from progressing, while promoting his favourites and friends.

Comment on → the autobiography paragraphs by Faseeh Shams

Faseeh Shams — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 03:39:44 +0000

Very entertaining, insightful posts and certainly one of the best Bio’s I have ever read. Even though I do not have a very long relationship with art, as I am myself on the path to become old and naive. My only affiliation with art is through my photography and the people I have met in the limited years spent behind the camera.

Your posts on different topics related to the art in Pakistan get me closer to understanding how it is evolving and what it lacks. I look forward to reading more about your views and seeing the world through your eyes.

Comment on Bonbon takes on Quddus Mirza – the LLF art talk fiasco by s.a.

s.a. — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 10:59:05 +0000

I agree with you on that fact that life in Pakistan is political and the artist are obviously affected and influenced by it. Hence ‘war imagery’ or political work cannot be written off. Neither is supporting such work detrimental. However, I agree with Abdullah on the use/overuse/abuse of such imagery for the sake of defining what Pakistani art is. Yet the effort lies in the audience being engaged enough to differentiate between genuine expression and that which isn’t. Even while I write this, I realize how ridiculous it sounds and how hard it is to define the two. But while burqa/bombs might not necessarily get one attention as an artist, it will get attention for its intrinsic shock value that is always so desirable to the ‘outsider’. Again, there is no concrete solution to this – except maybe that we need to embrace into our narrative many other contemporary artists and their visuals that are working on completely different tangents.
My head is a big box of mess right now and I can’t seem to state my thoughts coherently in this reply and so I apologise. Maybe later, maybe in Pakistan we can talk more about this.

Comment on Bonbon takes on Quddus Mirza – the LLF art talk fiasco by Atteqa Ali

Atteqa Ali — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 20:30:29 +0000

this article does address some valid points–the writer in question does make inappropriate remarks and is very judgmental without being wholly informed. but i think in general abdullah’s article is not very strong. i especially don’t like that the supporting of political art in Pakistan is seen as a bad or detrimental thing. life in pakistan is political and if someone wants to make political work, then so be it. news flash: making a picture of a burqa or bomb is not necessarily going to get you attention in the global art world, even with the support of supposed art critics. this is way too simplistic an understanding of a complex scenario.

Comment on Bonbon takes on Quddus Mirza – the LLF art talk fiasco by the s.a. project

the s.a. project — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 06:24:23 +0000

Hey thats a little harsh now isn’t it! Lets stick to the actual subject at hand – the content of the forum. I’m friends with him and he’s never written about me Actually who would ever want to write about me. Scratch that out!

Comment on Bonbon takes on Quddus Mirza – the LLF art talk fiasco by the s.a. project

the s.a. project — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 06:22:09 +0000

I’m so glad you decided to write in. A lot of people actually send in hatemail or do group bashing. Your comment is somewhat in the line of what I encouraged in Abdullah’s write-up – The ability to express your opinions legitimately and in a mature manner without resorting to outright character assassinations. Which unfortunately have happened in the comments above and in many conversations I’ve had with others.

Like I mentioned in this post, I actually have a very good relationship with Quddus Shb and he has often spoken to me critically about my work – and I have almost always taken his critique constructively except when I want to go bash my head in the wall.

The point is – opinions do matter. But more often than not we are programmed to accept the opinions of established ‘opinion-makers’ and do not either speak up ourselves or encourage others to either. Having opinions in the Pakistani art world means to actually step out of a box, out of the comfort zone, and express your thoughts and then wait for the bullets to come your way! There is no definition of right and wrong. I’m usually always saying stuff no one agrees with. But if we all learn to state opinions without actually resorting to maliciousness, there is still hope for discourse.