This inspirational exhibition in the community gallery at Birmingham’s Midlands Art Centre (MAC) brought together the photographic works of four young Pakistani artists who participated in the international collaboration between Tasweerghar in Lahore, Pakistan’s only space dedicated to photography, and Grain projects, a UK based arts organisation dedicated to commissioning photography. Funded by the British Council Pakistan with an Arts Residency Grant, this robustly constructed programme gave the participating artists the opportunity of visiting the United Kingdom, during which they engaged with a range of photography related events, workshops and mentoring by industry specialists.
The participants on the programme include Pakistan based artists Ume Laila, Hira Noor, Waleed Zafar and Asad Ali, who each approach their practice engaging with different photographic methodologies. This includes working with collaborative methods, examining colonial histories, and looking at gender and identity.
In Hybrid Amalgamation I-IV Laila’s practice takes on a sculptural form. In her images she reconfigures recognisable buildings in Pakistan and re-presents them in an abstracted three-dimensional arrangement. Through this process she starts to unpick and question multiple colonial histories deeply embedded in the material construction of Pakistan. The title of Noor’s work translates as, This pot made of clay will turn to earth with its final play which is taken from an Urdu song that refers to the cycle of life. She is interested in clay as a medium of expression – a product of the land used as a tool of play in her collaborative portraits made with local children from her community, who in the images immerse themselves in the clay and perform for the camera. Emerging from the gallery, Noor’s work spans across an entire wall dominating the café area, and mirrors visitors’ play outside in the landscaped park.
Inspired by the colonial journey of material culture, Zafar’s work uses images of mid 20th Century pottery made in the UK, once owned by his grandmother, on which to pivot ideas of colonial power and migration. The images of the pottery are repeated and drawing from ethnographic colonial photographs, they are recontextualised through a highly politicised lens. Ali takes on an experimental approach to their work and examines gender norms. Working collaboratively, with a number of participants Ali collaged and reworked donated photographs to create Imaginary Beings which can be seen in original form as a collage in Karachi. Ali’s works transcend stereotypical representations of the body, by innovatively fusing together multiple images to create freeform bodies. The presentation at MAC included an installed photograph of the work in Karachi as well as a zine.
Overall, this is an exciting exhibition that reminds us of the power of giving space to marginalised voices to tell stories about the world. The work of these artists is confident in asking questions, and in doing so, expands beyond traditional approaches of photography and stretches conceptual boundaries. It is a worthwhile visit for anyone interested in really listening to photographs and engaging in new ways of understanding the world.
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New Narratives in Photography was presented at MAC, Birmingham (8 Feb – 27 May, 2024)
Reviewed for Photomonitor by Caroline Molloy.
