ISLAMABAD:A solo exhibition of paintings titled ‘Dastan Kisa Kahani’ by prominent artist Hassnain Awais will conclude on November 1,Tuesday, here at Satrang art gallery.
The show was dedicated to support and promote artists as well as artisans of Pakistan. The exhibition explored the practice of preserving paper records in order to create archives that hold layers of memories within them.
“In an increasingly digital era this method of recording history and culture is in danger of becoming obsolete, said Zahra Khan”, Curator of the gallery about the show.
Hassnain creates beautiful, intricate works, representing the delicacy of historical archives. Watercolor washes, oil paints, digital print, lithography and color pencils bring to life Dastan, or life lessons told through stories.
The artist has several solo and group shows to his credit at home and abroad.
Dastan Kisa Kahani is based on archives comprising records that have been selected for permanent or long-term
preservation on grounds of their enduring cultural, historical value.
Such records are normally unpublished and almost always unique, unlike books or magazines of which many identical copies may exist. “My work revolves around a feeling or an affection that one develops with such personalized paper, letters, envelopes. We have a strange bond with these archival papers and the fact that we are slowly moving away from them. Elements in my work represent different aspects of our society and its norms.
Each image is telling us a different story/dastan, or lessons of life and is presented in the form of visual
poetry which needs to be deciphered,” said the artist.