Sclpture - Komal Tauqeer

Intricacy

A recent sculpture exhibition held at VM Art Gallery titled 'Intricacy' displayed the work of two brothers, Sadiq Hussain and Sajid Mehmood.

Sadiq began his career in the early 80's as a wooden sculptor. Sadiq talks about how Ali Imam Rizvi was impressed with his work and encouraged and supported him to exhibit his work which is why his first exhibition which was held at the Indus Art Gallery and took place when he was only seventeen years old. The younger brother and artist, Sajid completed his Diploma in Fine Arts from the Central Institute of Arts and Crafts, Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi in 2009.

The history of sculpture spans pre-historic and ancient civilizations to the contemporary. Sculpture as an art form goes back to Prehistoric times. Most Stone Age statues were made of ivory or soft stone, however some clay human and animal figures have also been found. Man's fascination and desire to create 3D objects similar/ and or inspired by real life is not new.

Talking about his work, Sadiq says that the sculptures he makes are inspired from real life and he tries to make them close to real life too. A life size horse sculpture for Pakistan Navy, he said, is one of his greatest achievements. The piece of art is still placed as a monument at NORE-1, Officers Mess of Pakistan Navy.

He also mentioned that the theme running through his work was 'life' and described the milieu of life's struggle and the challenging and unforeseen situations life sometimes throws are way. The wooden sculptures which twist around each other, bend and turn and meet each other perhaps are significant of the fact that even though all troubles may stem from different sources they can all become intermingled and tangled together ( like his sculptures).

Sajid on the other hand said sculpting was in their blood as their father was also an artist. The theme of his work was 'Relations'. In current times people are often so busy with the issues and burdens of daily life that they forget to build relations, to work on them and to nurture them. It is not uncommon for people to get caught up with the demands of daily life and in the process take relationships, be it with parents, siblings, relatives or friends for granted. In order to grow and develop relationships need to be nurtured. This is what Sajid draws his inspiration from. His work is reflective of how strongly he feels about the importance of relations in a person's life.

Both brothers work which was exhibited at VM Art Gallery was done in wood, which is often a common choice among sculptors for it's solid look but malleable nature. Interesting sculptures in various sizes, carrying different meanings and inspired from different things were enjoyed by all.