Featured Artist: Imran Qureshi
...offering hope alongside tragedy.
Imran Qureshi is a politically charged Pakistani artist inspired by the events of violence in his home country and the man-made disasters in the world today. He blends life and death in his pieces, painting foliage in the color of blood with a delicate repetition, offering hope alongside tragedy. The ‘blood’ splatter first appears to be evidence of a slaughter, but if you look closely, ornamental leaves emerge.
In his most recent installation, he painted the rooftop terrace of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Entitled, “The Roof Garden Commission,” this piece will be featured through November 3, 2013. Qureshi titles this installation, “And How Many Rains Must Fall Before the Stains Are Washed Clean,” inspired by the poem “Hum Ke Thehre Ajnabi,” written by the Urdu poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz (1911-1984).
Hum Ke Thehre Ajnabi (translated by Agha Shahid Ali)
After those many encounters, that easy intimacy,
We are strangers now –
After how many meetings will we be that close again?
When will we again see a spring of unstained green?
After how many monsoons will the blood be washed
from the branches?
So relentless was the end of love, so heartless –
After the nights of tenderness, the dawns were pitiless,
so pitiless.
And so crushed was the heart that though it wished
it found no chance –
After the entreaties, after the despair — for us to
quarrel once again as old friends.
Faiz, what you’d gone to say, ready to offer everything,
even your life –
Those healing words remained unspoken after all else had
been said.
+ + +
Imran Qureshi lives in Lahore, Pakistan. He received his BFA at the National College of Arts in 1993, where he now teaches. His works have been exhibited around the world and are part of numerous collections. In 2013 Qureshi was named the “Artist of the Year” by The Deutsche Bank Kunsthalle in Berlin. To view more of Qureshi’s work, please visit the Corvi-Mora gallery: here.
[All images courtesy of Corvi-Mora Gallery and Metropolitan Museum of Art/Hyle Skopitz]