Internationally acclaimed calligrapher Muzzumil Ruheel will be exhibiting his latest solo show at Karachi’s stylish VM Art Gallery on Saturday, September 24. This latest solo exhibition by Ruheel features a wide range of mixed media pieces. By using found images, written texts and traditional forms of visual culture, the artwork demonstrates various conflicts within the processes of making and reading artworks. As with past works, Ruheel draws heavily from his heritage as a calligrapher. The use of mixed media and traditional forms of calligraphy draw attention to questions of media production, religious practice and visual culture. Ruheel’s work is not based on a single premise, but is rather drawn from an open process of observing and accumulating visual and conceptual materials.
This philosophy is communicated in the title of the exhibition:
“I do not quote from scriptures, I simply see what I see.” Ruheel’s current body of work utilises traditions of the calligram. However, rather than adapting individual characters, Ruheel appropriates the calligraphic script by layering words and phrases in order to form images. Adapting images from the media culture and art history, even his words are extracted from borrowed sources. Derived from news broadcasts and publications, Ruheel exploits the vocabulary of the news media while writing within the precise rules of the calligraphic script. Aficionados will be able to catch the artist’s latest mixed media pieces any time between 10:30 am and 7:30 pm at the gallery; the exhibition will run until October 5.
