Volume 1, Issue 2

Essays

Bindu – Bindi - Nukta
The Infinite in the Finite
by Jasleen Dhamija
The simplest of all creative expressions is the most complex. Visualize a wide open surface and its very centre, a drop, a bindu, a nukta, a dot. It draws the eyes, it draws the whole being and absorbs us and suddenly that still centre begins to pulsate and the duality of its form emerges and we are drawn into the very depth of our being, until we are one with the universe.

A Journey of Materials and Tools, Processes and Practice
Miniature and Neo-Miniature
by Rumana Husain
The link and continuity of traditional process may still begin with specialized training in old techniques such as sona halkari (application of liquid gold), the Lahori khat (a regional style of Urdu calligraphy), or the use of beaten silver and gold foils…

Devotion and Iconography
The Figures of Popular Piety in the Indus Valley
by Michel Boivin
One of the first things a foreign traveler observes in Pakistan is the dynamism of pictorial production. Pictures are everywhere: on walls, on trucks, on buses… Books and even documentary films have been devoted to this genre of public art.

Marketing to a Global Audience: new trajectories in contemporary art in Pakistan
by Amra Ali
The mapping of new directions (and hence new traditions) evolves out of a process of cultural conditioning that is the structural basis of attitude and viewpoint. A viewpoint that seems to be located within the postcolonial construct acknowledges the significance of gaze as an integral factor that contributes to the nature of artistic practices and readings of it.

Turkish Painting in the Light of its Historical Traditions
by Jale Nejdet Erzen
Although the beginnings of painting in the Western style in Turkey can be traced back to the last quarter of the 19th century, a knowing eye could still follow the slow change of pictorial idioms from the 17th to the late 19th centuries, where Western influences were effective.

Art Global

Understanding Installation Art
by Sangeeta Thapa
Installation art can be defined as an artistic tryst between time and space, in which the five senses are aroused in the minimalist narration, poetic or un-poetic duplication of real-time experiences.

Cholamandal Artist Village: A Vision Fostering an Artists’ Commune
by Ashrafi S. Bhagat
Today the name of Cholamandal Artist Village is on the international circuit as a concept of an artists’ commune, set up by visionary K.C.S. Paniker in the mid 60s. The Artist Village is situated on the East Coast Road, on the way to the historical site of Mamallapuram, about thirty kilometers from Chennai (former Madras).

Asian Art Biennale 2006- Art of a Shared Genealogy
by Niilofur Farrukh
The experience of attending the 12th Asian Biennale in March 2006 as the curator for Pakistan, provided an opportunity for me to see the current art trajectories in Asia that have evolved from the particularities of the region’s cultural and social dynamics.

Art Conservation

Art Conservation and Restoration
by The NuktaArt Team
As the number of artworks on paper has increased considerably in the last two decades, so have the concerns of the art collector. Paper is a much more fragile material than canvas, and humidity and drastic temperature changes can be its worst enemy.

Pakistan’s leading restorer Shakeel Siddiqi answers queries by artists on the preservation of art on paper.

Art Collector

Nukta Visits Anita Ahmed
by The NuktaArt Team
In entering Anita and Bilal Ahmed’s home in Karachi, the diverse collection of art, artifacts and antique china, combined with period furniture produce old-world warmth. Anita Ahmed prefers to collect art without a premeditated plan. It’s the emotional connection with the work that attracts her.

Music

Funk Carioca “Favela Rap” – the popular music of Rio de Janeiro
by Asma Husain and Vincent Rosenblatt
The Bailes and Funk continue to be closely associated with the culture of violence that is prevalent within the favelas of Rio. But arguably, Funk encapsulates this in music, rather than promoting the existing violence.

Book Review

Race-ing Art History - Critical Readings in Race and Art History
Author Kymberly N Pinder ed 2002
Reviewed by Leon Wainwright
Each essay explores the significance of the visuality of race in a work of art and what this element indicates about the work’s producer, audience and historical context.

Nukta-E-Nazar

NuktaArt and Rukhsana David in Conversation with Colin David
By the 1980s, when the political climate in Pakistan was less conducive for figurative painting and even less for nudes that had begun to dominate his canvas, Colin David remained firmly faithful to his muse and his passion.

Photo Essay

‘Unexpected Vistas’: Photographs taken during an enchanting trip to parts of West Africa in 2000
Photographs by Qamar Bharoocha Bana