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5/6/2012

Waqas Khan

Galeria Sabrina Amrani, Madrid

From June 6th to 21st July at Sabrina Amrani Art Gallery, Madrid (Spain) Mantaining his pulse, dot by dot. Travelling over each pore of the paper with a precision pen as his only ally. This is how the pakistani artist works. Waqas Khan is the protagonist of the show ‘Abstraction Contained’, with which Sabrina Amrani Art Gallery celebrates its first anniversary. Khan’s proposal updates the south asian miniaturist tradition so the retina of the viewer can endlessly dance on the works. With a whole lot of concentration, patience and dedication, the pakistani reveals what is beyond the visible world.

Khan was captivated by Bardhakhat technique, base of the Mughal miniaturistic painting, while he was studying at the National College of Art of Lahore (Pakistan). It is a milenary method of crafting the drawings dot by dot with a thin brush made of squirrel hair. The surface is always the same: wasli paper, a multilayer handmade paper with natural glue that contains copper sulphate, which prevents the work from eating paper bug attacks and guarantees perdurability. Of a smooth touch, its grain is almost imperceptible because it is polished with a shell or stone.

After adquiring the technique, Khan challenged himself to update it: “I commited myself to use a Rotring 0.1 Rapido, a high precision tool used in architecture. In this way, the technique was travelling from the static into the organic: the pen weights a lot and I have to use both hands firmly to prevent any error in the process, that would be fatal”, he remarks.

The concentration required by the artist is so high that he knows every pore of the paper where he works: “And each pore knows the pressure that my hand applies to them, that is different in each dot, mark or line”, he adds.

The fruits of this work are compositions with which Khan is “trying to surprise the viewers, commit to them and connect with them”.”I always wanted that the viewer’s retina to dance endlessly on my works. I want the viewers to stop before the work for a while, so they can think about patience, joy or beauty. In other words, I wanted them to experiment a trip to infinity with the body”, says the artist.

Spheres, lines and connections composed of hundreds of thousands of dots, marks and lines. A work that does not let the artist escape not a single night in months. “There is not a previous study, the shape comes out by itself. I give freedom to the surface”, he explains. The final result is a visual narration, told by Khan, that reveals what is lying after the world that is perceptible to the human eye. “The way I see it, this process is basically a personal experience”, he concludes.
Four months and twenty days. 16 hours a day.

While he works in a new work, the life of the artist is reduced to the creative process. He dedicates up to 16 hours a day, rotating the surface of paper so the work begins in the same point where it ends: ”The start is in the end, the end in the beginning”, describes Khan.

He looks into the work, takes a breath, draws one or two dots over the surface, separates from work to exhale and then inhale to start all over. “This work requires a great focalization of energy. I am not sure if in five years I’ll have the phisical strengh required to use this technique”. And he is feeling it already: for Sabrina Amrani Art Gallery he has created his bigger work ever. It is Closer, that represents an sphere of 1 meter diameter. It is a work that required three months and twelve days to achieve. 16 hours a day. For the creation of the whole Abstraction Contained show, Waqas required four months and twenty days.

Testing the technique, live
On Saturday 9th June, from 10.00 to 14.00 hours, Waqas Khan will give a workshop at Sabrina Amrani Art Gallery to explain his technique. The participants will learn how to ellaborate wasli paper and the way to hold the Rotring pen. After that, each participant will receive a sheet of paper and a pen to put to the test their own ability and creativity.

Sabrina Amrani, first anniversary
When they begun this adventure, Sabrina Amrani and Jal Hamad stood up to develop a galleristic project focused on proposals that invite to reflect about the individual, society and space. Works and artists that are openly demanding dialogue. And, without forgetting about other realities, they focused their view on the art that is emerging in North Africa, Middle East and South Asia.

This first year, they have collaborated again with Zoulikha Bouabdellah an algerian artist who inaugurated the gallery a year ago with her show Mirage, a personal vision about the Arab Spring; with Elvire Bonduelle; with Younes Baba-ali, recently awarded with the Léopold Sèdar Senghor Prize at Dakar Biennial; with Amina Benbouchta, with Nicène Kossentini, and with the indian artist with residence in Dubai, UBIK.

They have participated in JustMad3, Top25 Art Fair Casablanca and are preparing now their disembark in Beirut Art Fair, so they have been in art fairs in three different continents in just one year of life. And they have found a place in the social media, giving the opportunity to set tight relations with the MENASA region. It gave them also the opportunity to compose another way to bring art closer to the public. Their action El mejor País – developed with the collaboration of national newspaper El País – is a good example. Hundreds of users came to see and participate in the performance of Elvire Bonduelle and participated in the final production of the work, a newspaper made out only of good news. Video Diary of Abstraction Contained.

From April 24th until mid-June Sabrina Amrani Art Gallery will be publishing several small explanatory videos about the process of setting Abstraction Contained show up, from the creation of the artwork, to its reception from Pakistan, its photographic documentation, framing, installation in the gallery and opening.

Open day for press tuesday june 5th

Public opening wednesday 6th june. The artist will be present in both events.

Sabrina Amrani Art Gallery
Madera 23. Madrid
Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday 11:00 h. to 14:30 h. and 17:00 h. to 20:00 h. Saturdays 11:00 h. to 14.30
Admission free

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