News Story

‘Automaton Love,’ at The Loft

A curatorial project titled, ‘Automaton Love,’ conceived by Umer Butt, creative director, Grey Noise, Lahore and Mehreen Murtaza will be presented at The Loft at Lower Parel, Mumbai from February 9, 2010.  

The project will present the works by three artists, Ayesha Jatoi, David Chalmers Alesworth and Mehreen Murtaza. Butt points out that, “This exhibition brings forth an outlandish set of works which deals with the most important invention of the century '’the automobile.’  It brings the exclusive selfish dream of the ultimate car, coming in contact with the outside world.”

All three artists are “residents of a city of ten million, where some three hundred new cars join the roads daily, but a mere eight percent of the populace have private transport. Here, the car is king and the environment is continually carved up and polluted in deference to the needs of the private motorist. It is here too, that the private vehicle is the ultimate object of desire.”

Speaking of the project, the curator/artists states that, “A key image of this century is the man in the motorcar. It sums up elements of speed, drama, aggression; the junction of advertising and consumer goods in the technological landscape of today. We spend a substantial part of our lives in the motorcar, and this shared experience of moving together in an elaborately signalled landscape, condenses many of the experiences of being a human being.”

According to the New Delhi based art collectors, Sreya and Swapan Seth who have supported this project, “We have always believed that Pakistani art and indeed its artists have a dynamism that is refreshing and real. And we are delighted to be associated with a project that has dynamic energy at its kernel.”

Jatoi, with a background in Miniature Painting and Masters in Visual Arts at the National College of Arts in Lahore, comments on art making itself and questions the relevance of traditional modes of working today. Alesworth has lived and worked in Pakistan for the past 22 years and was a pivotal member of the decorated transport movement of Karachi in the mid-90s.  Murtaza has received a Bachelors’ degree in Fine Art from Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, in 2008. Her art practice draws imagery from science fiction in order to probe issues of religion and spirituality.

The exhibition will continue at The Loft till March 3, 2010.

- From A Correspondent