The artworks of Kiran Saleem in a solo show titled "To See or Not to See" at Sanat Gallery, Karachi celebrated the traditional painting techniques and encourage viewers to take second, closer look to the art by the old masters.
Her paintings were basically comments on the cultural and social norms of our world as a society which haven't changed from the past till today. In this context she asked questions about social identity of art, authorship and censorship of art in this contemporary world of art.
A Lahore based artist Kiran Saleem graduated from College of Art & Design, GC University Faisalabad in 2009 with a distinction in painting, and afterwards acquired an MA Honours degree in Visual Art from NCA Lahore in 2013. She has been awarded the best young artist award by Arts Council Lahore two years ago and was the recipient of Arjumand Painting Award's first prize last year. She is also a visiting faculty member at NCA Lahore.
She used the self-portraits of noted artists like Rembrandt, Raphael, Courbet, Kahlo or Jonathan Richardson and some of their classic paintings such as 'Water Lilies' by Monet for her artworks. She intricately replicated the artworks of these famous painters to make her point.
"My work addresses the concept/construct of contemporary art: that what is actually contemporary? Is it the image or the idea?
I take printed images of western paintings to reinforce the idea of what I see, interpret, and record the shift of perception which takes place upon discovery through a remote or second hand source; as I have never seen these paintings in real and the only format in which these paintings are experienced is either through web or printed paper," she said.
She has reconstructed the self-portraits on a small scale as the size of her portraits is much smaller than the real size of the paintings. All of her works were painted just like torn papers stuck to canvas with a strip of masking tape.
"My intent to reinterpret these works of European art history is an attempt to personalise them and bring them into close contact - first to me as a maker and then to others, as the viewers of these images. My intervention in these works is a form of critique or comment upon the divide of time and the separation of space," she explained.
She tried to create dialogue between different eras by combining present with the past. Many more things are in common in various centuries as we might think now; nothing has much changed since long time. Our conservative sensibilities and perceptions of authorship and our experience of aesthetics has been the same through decades.
"My work deals with the idea of dichotomy. I am working on different things which are contradictory to each other but simultaneously work together. I feel I exist on the boundaries, somewhere, where opposing forces meet. I exist not on either side, but on the line that divides, separates, and hence unites", she stated.
The almost replicas of the masters in her paintings raised questions and wanted to be answered.
Her canvasses have large empty spaces especially a painting in which she mimicked the signature of Rembrandt in the right side corner at the bottom of the canvas. Here she wanted to know whether she can say this artwork is hers or it is Rembrandt's artwork. Who is going to decide whose original piece of work it is.
Another of her works a replica of Monet's water lilies which revealed the dual nature of our art education where students were taught to replicate the masters' paintings from a printout image or by seeing it on internet. The painting depicted Monet's famous water lilies on a large canvas which contained a printed copy of the same painting on one side of the canvas.
In a painting she superimposed her own face on top of the Mona Lisa by doing so she wanted to know how far an artist can practice or experience his/her art and imagination on another piece of art.
Nudity still creates controversy and censorship must be practised in the artworks related to the subject. She asked the question by recreating a portion of Lucas Cranach's "Adam and Eve" and Courbet's "The Origin of the World".
In a painting titled "Broken Promises" she questioned the modern values of marriage. She has taken the famous "Alnolfini Portrait" by Jan Van Eyck, a painting of a married couple and cropped it from the middle where the couple were holding hands of each other. Is the bond strong enough for our century, she seemed to ask. [email protected]
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