Muhammad Muzammil Khan tried to recapture and preserve his life experiences in his current series of paintings in a solo show titled "Lyari Expressway" at Sanat Gallery, Karachi. While going through his paintings I observed that he shared his feelings through images of destroyed buildings, houses and shops. The paintings depicted different architectural features that have been changed and deformed due to collapse of the buildings. The paintings have perspicuous recollection of his past.
He renewed his profound memories of demolished buildings in his paintings. His complicated yet sophisticated architectural paintings have the ruins of his childhood home which was demolished by the authorities to make way for the Lyari Expressway. So it was obvious that he had many childhood memories related to that house that now became rubble.
He tried to rejoin those memories by combining and joining the bricks of his demolished house in his paintings so that these paintings served to preserving memory just like photographs that whenever looked at after years pass by they brought back memories of the past just like moments ago and thus in a way we created a personal history of the events in our lives.
In the same way Muzammil made his own personal memory public by depicting it in his paintings and also preserve it. The series of paintings were a sentimental portrait of his former locality where he used to reside and play around. He expressed tender sadness and nostalgia through these paintings. One can felt his deep refined feeling for the area where he lived as a child but is no more now.
He may not be able to come back there with his children to discuss how he used to play and wander in the streets of that old locality which has now gone. But his mind wandered through the streets, in front of old houses and shops the twists and turns of sidewalks and the playing of hide and seeks these games and the way of life will remain with him forever.
The intricate paintings of the ruins were just like flashbacks that help restoring memories so that a person can transfer correct information to the next generation. He wanted coming children to remember the past how a lively neighbourhood was destroyed. His heart cried while painting these works because he has to relive that moments when he painted them. The house became symbolic for him as it carried all his memories and experiences and served as a reminder of bygone days.
He himself talked about the distance he attempted to convey through layers of reality and imagination and recollection fused together, as this space that was such a fundamental part of his life become inaccessible and foreign. This brings to light another prominent theme in Muzammil's work pertaining to the psychology of 'home'. One questions this intrinsic need for us human beings to belong, to have a space to own, to nest, to occupy, and to return to.
It is not merely a roof over our heads or a warm bed that we require, but a space that can define us, as we set out to define it, and that consequentially comes to reflect who we are as people. (The writer can be reached at nadeemzuberi71@gmail.com)