Grey Noise in Dubai is thrilled to present The dust, too, is replete, a debut solo exhibition in the UAE by Pakistani artist Inaam Zafar. The displayed works are drawn from photographic memoirs and aim to evoke emotions stemming from intuition and chance encounters. The show will be open to the public until 8 November 2024.
Fascinated with landscapes and living soil, Zafar created a series of earth pigments and clays collected from ruins in Tulamba and Harappa, the Arandu mountains (Skardu), and the shores of Karachi Beach. The artist employs these pigments to explore subtle variations in colour, which he further refines in his oil paintings, emphasising the theme of impermanence.
The exhibition’s title is inspired by Gog, a poem by English poet Ted Hughes. The “dust” reflects Zafar’s colour palette in the exhibited paintings. The dusty grey tones also reflect the sky and foliage of Lahore, a city where the artist was born and still resides.
About the artist
Artist and educator Inaam Zafar (b. 1988, Lahore, Pakistan) received a BFA in Visual Arts from Beaconhouse National University (Lahore) in 2010, where he works as a visiting lecturer. Zafar also runs the non-profit Oasis School for Autism supporting autistic children and in 2019, he established aut.art, an art initiative promoting the work of individuals on the autism spectrum.
For Zafar, painting is an ongoing observational study, evolving with each iteration. In his practice, he examines the phenomenon of “equiluminance”: equally lit surfaces of computer displays. Drawing from references from different image sources, such as photos, magazines, video stills, and works produced by other artists, Zafar prints and re-scans low-quality inkjet images, painting them from various screens to imitate a uniform glow. For example, one of his oil painting series features blurred scenes from The Blood of Hussain, a film released and banned in 1981. Zafar fragmented the video file into stills, and fewer were rearranged to create a muted narrative, contrasting the film’s original storyline.
In addition to his art practice, Zafar gathers botanical samples, fungi, dust, and soil during his travels across southern Punjab (India) and the northern mountains. These elements are incorporated into his work to evoke memory and symbolise the passage of time through mineral layers.
The artist has displayed his works in a number of exhibitions which include Nebula (solo) (Color Gallery, Lahore, 2012), the 9th Emerging Talent (VM gallery, Karachi, Pakistan, 2011), and the Young Artists’ Annual Exhibition (Alhamra Art Council, Lahore, 2008), to name a few.
To get more information about The dust, too, is replete, please go to the official web page of the exhibition.
In addition, you might be interested in visiting Paths of Transcendence, Pakistani artist Safdar Ali Qureshi’s solo show, and Aspects [مظاهر] by Saudi artist Alia Ahmad.
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