What could be a better excuse to leave one’s house on a Sunday than to go to an art exhibition. Organised by The Roadside, works of 22 artists were displayed from October 28 to 30 at an old and disbanded building right in the heart – rather the horseshoe – of Lahore’s Liberty Market.
Once you negotiated through vendors offering various valuable stuff, and stacks of printed fabric piled on both sides of the staircase, and climbed up to the structure that presumably was constructed in 1977 (as recorded near the entrance), you were in awe of the beauty of the building, especially, the interiors. Large halls, small rooms, corridors, mostly uneven or torn floors, bare walls, remains of old furniture, stains, spots, scratches, offered a satiating experience. In comparison to – and against the bustle of the busiest market of Lahore, sounds of sellers, noise of the traffic, hordes of customers, shops littered with goods, invading neon signs, and excessive electronic lights – the empty, quite, unkempt and worn out space of 21 Commercial Zone had the power to provide an aesthetic pleasure.
Artists, at least most of them, prefer surfaces that are neglected, rough and run-down. Machines are able to produce pristine products (such as the camera), but it is only an artist who is capable of creating works with human imperfections – hence the excitement. In contrast to a mechanically manufactured painted sheet, artists make canvases with varying textures and densities. The tactile quality stimulates a viewer. So being at a venue, with walls of grey, peeling, pale plaster and accumulated layers of grime on cement surfaces, is satisfying to a visual artist, because all these remind them either of the studio, or work in progress. It is an archive of human intervention.
