The Ninth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

91 ARTISTS Top: Untitled (Ruins series) 2017 Watercolour pigments on paper / 206 x 456cm / Courtesy: The artist and Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai Below: Untitled (storm series) 2018 Dry pigments on mylar / 32 x 42cm / Courtesy: The artist and Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai / Proposed for the Queensland Art Gallery Collection Born 1979, Pattoki, Pakistan Lives and works in Lahore, Pakistan Ali Kazim's works evoke a journey through the Punjab region of Pakistan, an area abundant with ruins and remnants of civilisations that lie at the distant edge of known history. In precisely detailed paintings, he renders deserted landscapes in their dormant condition or captures a sudden moment of transformation as a storm tears through parched terrain. The artist’s vast environments contain no figures, yet the views are preoccupied with histories of human habitation, and echo the remnants of lives from mysterious pasts. Kazim's works are imbued with a studious and persistent interest in refining painterly techniques and processes, and, for many years, he pursued a distinctive investigation into figuration. One of Kazim's early portraits was a study of a Priest King drawn from a terracotta figure found at an ancient Indus Valley site, which led to a fascination with the ancient histories of civilisations in the Punjab region, particularly imagining the stories of habitation hidden in unexcavated remains. Punjab covers much of what was once the Indus Valley Civilisation, with the archaeological site of the city of Harappa not far from present-day Lahore. 1 The history of these peoples — and the presence of unexcavated cities possibly on the scale of Harappa — inspired Kazim to focus on landscape paintings, conjuring the mystery of little-known histories. Focusing on distant and deserted views, the atmospheric environments resemble little of the miniature painting traditions of Lahore, but embody a devotion to detail and an enduring desire to master technique. Kazim draws on a repertoire of styles, traditions and materials in these landscapes to develop textures, subtle tones and emotive surroundings. Each composition reveals precise detail in small features, which are then amassed across vast compositions. Large, monochrome scrolls informed by the style of Siyah Qalam involve multiple layers of ink constructed with a fine brush — a mode of fleeting popularity in Persian painting, influenced by the ink painting traditions of East Asia. 2 Using thin washes of black pigment, Kazim then rinses the paper in shallow water to remove extra pigment, before finishing the line-work with tiny brushes. Paintings in colour begin in black and white before thin washes of different colours are applied — after 30 to 40 coloured washes, the paper reaches saturation point, before delicate details are finished to reveal shards of pottery against the earth. Compositions on polyester film create alluring visual effects — black pigment is worked with cotton or soft brushes to create an atmospheric field, while stencils and erasers detail floating pottery shards, lightning, storm clouds or dust carried on the wind. 3 Conjuring elemental forces — sandstorms, lightning strikes and enigmatic skyscapes — Kazim captures the fleeting natural power of nature that momentarily brings the landscapes to life. Kazim regularly visits these areas of ruin, studying the mounds that form the contours of the landscapes, and discovering and searching the sites of cities excavated, partly exposed or still buried. He contemplates how pieces of pottery are slowly transformed from utilitarian objects to parts of deserted, forgotten places. It was the local potter’s wheel in his hometown that first introduced Kazim to art, and his recent explorations of historic sites have inspired him to return to pottery, collecting shards to create new objects to sit alongside his paintings. His blackened, rock-like ceramics, which bear organic lines or veins, resemble organs and create a sense of ambiguity between the living and the inanimate. Together, Ali Kazim’s various media, techniques and perspectives create multiple viewpoints of the landscape, offering different ways to access these environments and their intriguing histories. They hint at mystery, rather than providing answers to the past, and they unravel the imaginings of a long and evolving relationship between life and land. Tarun Nagesh Endnotes 1 Harappa is thought to have reached its zenith around 3000–1800 BCE with over 20 000 residents. 2 Siyah Qalam (literally 'black pen') was a genre of Persian painting practised in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. 3 Ali Kazim, email to the author, 10 April 2018. ALI KAZIM