ISLAMABAD:A solo art show titled “Dastan Kisa Kahani” by Hassnain Awais is continued to attract art lovers at Satrang Gallery with the abstract imagery that visualizes the letters, documents and memories of the artist.
Created with mixed medium in print making, the display explores 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 In an increasingly digital era this method of recording history and culture is in danger of growing outdated.
Hassnain creates beautiful and intricate works, masterfully representing the delicacy of historical archives. Watercolor washes, oil paints, digital print, kitchen lithography and color pencils bring to life Dastans, or life lessons told through stories. Societal elements take the form of vivid sea and land creatures, and together with floral imagery and rich swathes of color, they create remarkable poetic depictions, says Zahra Khan Curator of the show in a statement.
She said that Satrang Gallery is dedicated to supporting and promoting the artists and artisans of Pakistan through various group and solo shows providing them a platform to display their products.
Hassnain Awais is an artist born and raised in Lahore, he graduated with the degree in fine arts, majored in printmaking. He has exhibited his work in various galleries nationally and also took part in international exhibitions. He has worked as a faculty member in the printmaking department at National College of the Arts, Lahore and also at Punjab University’s department of Art and Design.
Dastan Kisa Kahani archives have been selected for permanent or long-term preservation on grounds of their enduring cultural, historical, or evidentiary value. Such records are normally unpublished and almost always unique, unlike books or magazines of which many identical copies may exist. A feeling or an affection that one develops with such personalized paper, letters, and envelopes. “We have a strange bond with these archival papers and the fact that we are slowly moving away from them. Memories have a strange tendency of fading away with time yet many fragments are always there lurking within the depths of our minds and heart. We have a strange bond with these archival papers and the fact that we are slowly moving away from them. Elements in my work represents different sets 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.