Pakistani artist Fazal Rizvi recently displayed his works ‘A mirror in my pocket’ at Grey Noise gallery in Dubai’s creative Alserkal Avenue as part of his long term engagement and research in reference to the glacial and mountainous terrain in the northern Pakistan.
“In the summer of 2020, I trekked through the Karakoram mountains in Pakistan hoping to collect sounds of glaciers and the surrounding territory,” said the artist, according to a press release issued by the gallery back in February.
“Hearing the audio files for the first time upon my arrival in Maastricht, I realised they had captured nothing of what my ears had witnessed. I deemed this exercise a failure.”
As part of a long-term and open-ended research project, the artist had stated that he began to contemplate the predicament of failure – “the failure to record, the failure to listen, the failure even to realise that documenting an unruly landscape aurally could be as difficult as trying to walk it.”
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The artist continued to speak about the body of work displayed at the exhibition.
“This body of work while centering itself on the present and the past; the colonial, the historical and the mythical; the molecular and the geological; the metaphorical and the material, attempts to confront several images and their accompanying veils.
“It seeks to think through moments in various journeys across time and place, where a terrain resists being read and recorded, where images turn their backs towards you, where a magical herb disguises itself to not be seen, and where a blur is all that is left for you to witness and perceive.”
The works in question is in abstract form and leaves much room for interpretation.
Rizvi is among the latest in the roster of Pakistani artists showcasing their work in Dubai, which has been increasing its investment in art and culture programing in recent years.
Earlier this year, Art Dubai debuted its largest edition to date, and featured works by Syed Sadequain and Rasheed Araeen .
Alserkal Art Week, which took place earlier this year with the aim of presenting contemporary art to the public, featured works by Pakistani artists Rashid Rana and Hamra Abbas.
‘Watan’ – a pictorial book featuring Punjab by French-Uruguan photographer Graciela Magnoni – was featured in an exhibition curated by Pakistani artist and educator Salima Hashmi.
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Rizvi is an interdisciplinary artist currently based in Karachi.
He graduated from the National College of Arts, Lahore and is the recipient of the Charles Wallace Pakistan Trust award for Gasworks Studios Residency, London in 2014, Pro Helvetia New Delhi studio residency in Zurich, 2020.
He was a resident artist at the Jan van Eyck Academie, Netherlands for the year 2020-21, and at Cite des Arts Paris, with Institute Francaise in 2023.
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