Rashid Rana at Lisson Gallery
No photograph can translate or communicate the intricacies, colours and extraordinary detail of Rashid Rana's work. Rana who lives and works in Lahore Pakistan, is one of the most important contemporary artists working in South Asia today. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the National College of Arts in Lahore and a Master of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston. He started his career as a painter.
The Lisson Gallery (29 Bell street) is currently showing his latest key works in which he uses photographic imagery in varied formats including installation, sculpture, and photographic prints.
Rana is using pixelation technique in the "Language series". In this work, he juxtaposes tiny images of billboard advertising/shops' signs in Urdu and English creating a grid of horizontal lines (in "Language Series I") and abstract forms with movement and colours (in "Language Series 2").
His new sculpture, "Desperately Seeking Paradise II" (2010-2011), is a powerful piece made of aluminium and stainless steel which reveals, when we move along the work, a urban landscape and an infinite number of tiny images once we move closer. A unique architectural piece. Really worth a visit.
Until 30 April 2011.
