Encounters: Imran Qureshi

The sparse meditative backgrounds in Qureshi’s portraits are painted with few colours, it is the small details that inform the viewer of the bigger picture. In one landscape a multiplying family of dragonflies symbolises the irrepressible regenerative nature of life. Tinier details are applied to the subjects in the small paintings with the tip of a fine paintbrush, such as the military camouflage detail on a pair of socks. One subject has his trousers cropped to above ankle length following the example set by prophet Mohammad, also sports a pen in the top pocket of a casual red workaday shirt. The embodiment of ‘Moderate Enlightenment’ is told through choice of fabrics. The Artist paints onto a surface that has a specific, generic texture, namely Wasli paper, and applies many layers of paint to create a smooth body of colour. These are descriptions that could loosely be applied to the approach of the Dutch Masters to structuring portraits. Rembrandt’s fine details often note lavish, opulent excess. This shows a common ground shared by artistic genres that have evolved in different cultures.

Whilst portraiture has historically been a genre that tells the story of the great and the good, the Mughal miniature style, of which Qureshi is a leading exponent, is no exception. However, Qureshi applies it to photographs taken of his contemporaries holding traditional poses where bodies are positioned front on to the viewer but the face is turned to the side and painted in silhouette. This open-ended approach unearths a new view of cross-culturalism in a contemporary society and it lifts the work off the page.

The space surrounding the four miniature portraits of ‘Moderate Enlightenment’ also holds the installation ‘Dismantled’. Qureshi’s fine details of blue traditional florescence motifs are painted onto white walls in two strips, as perfect as wallpaper. However, in places the pattern is splashed, like liquid dripping as paint. This installation, like cross-culturalism, exists beyond the gallery walls. Whilst this is the use of traditional art to portray modern observations of Pakistan, Qureshi has employed a slightly surreal twist and placed it on walls around the globe.

Lita Doolan (DI Reviewer), 21/11/07

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