Abdullah Syed's latest body of work has increasingly focused on Pakistan. As if asking: What is this place where I grew up? And: how long will this troubled nation continue to perpetuate this pattern of ignorance? By manipulating form, by inhabiting space either with text or form, Syed creates work that triggers personal resonance. Personal, intimate reactions then have the potential to provoke honest responses, thereby perhaps replacing the predictable, controlled reactions encouraged by the State.

Abdullah Syed identifies, or seeks to identify, how closely his attach­ments, his upbringing, his childhood memories and his cultural roots are intertwined with the political condition of his country. At the same time he investigates how politics in his country have tried to superimpose the notion of an integral, original and unified identity. He articulates an ambivalent position within an extreme political situation, seeking, as a Pakistani citizen, to express a nuanced and intelligent relationship to the State that acts in his name.

Pakistan and its people, since the very creation of the country in 1947,have been increasingly engaged with the question of identity: who they are - collectively - beyond their historical, geographical, and political condition especially after the radical breaks in social memory caused by alternating civil and military govern­ments and the continuing national functional and symbolic crisis. The question emerged in the 1990s as debates on cultural identity (gender, ethnic, labour, social, etc.) began within the new power formulations of the time.

The making of Pakistan and its very idea have, in fact, been burdened and troubled from the outset. The intended unification of the Muslims of South Asia under the flagship Pakistan - initially West and East Pakistan - failed on many levels, most notably with the secession of East Pakistan in 1971. Today almost as many Muslims live in India and Bangladesh, the latter being the former East Pakistan, a fact which makes it difficult for Pakistan's politics to claim Pakistan as the land for South Asian Muslims. The founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, who came to be known as the Quaid-e-Azam (Great Leader), and his vision of a secular, liberal and democratic nation State for the Muslims of British India finds multiple interpretations throughout Pakistan. And though a diversity of opinion about national identity is not unusual and is found in many countries, the problem in Pakistan is compounded; competing ideas are narrowed, even repressed whereas in democratic countries such debates generally lead to vitality and rebirth.

The Quaid-e-Azam died too soon to fulfil his vision of a State with "faith, unity and discipline". With Pakistan's institutions having to be built from scratch, it was no surprise that it took nine years for the Constituent Assembly to adopt the Constitution only to be abrogated two years later by the first military government of General Ayub Khan. Over the years, the Constitution was amen­ded numerous times, most notably by the military ruler General Zia ul-Haq who directed much energy protecting the ideological boundaries of the State. The idea of a monolithic Muslim community became the pillar of the State through which Zia sought to solve identity problems which had beset the country since 1947. This led to an increase in censorship and an Islamisation on all levels of life.

Abdullah Syed left Pakistan to pursue his art education in America. In 2003, upon return to his homeland Syed connected with his local art scene in an attempt to feel rooted again. He collaborated and exhibited with local artists but when exhibiting a controversial portrait he came to experience vigorous critique, mostly based on misinterpretation and mis­understanding. This portrait was a fusion of his own portrait with that of General Zia-ul-Haq, the very dictator who had banned figurative art.

But how should an art community react when a so-called returning artist, and 'intruder', digitally creates such a 'marriage' only to argue that "I am, as a Pakistani, a reflection of our leaders"?l The result was a half-bust portrait in military uniform, eyes gazing out towards the spectator with a smile. This gaze, of course, is contradictory with two antithetical agendas at work: on the one hand to recover a lost utopian­critical horizon and on the other, a resignation to the inevitability of dystopia. Both of these attitudes result in an artistic practice that constructs identity from an imaginary negotiation between collective memory, autobiographical memory, narcissism, and social development.

This multi-plicity of personal conduct also appeared in earlier work such as Histrionic Grooming I & II and is explicitly inherent in an elaborate installation in Karachi titled Subliminal Voids (2004). "The Subliminal Voids", the artist com­mented,"is a visual analysis of our infatuation, perception, and under­standing of voids and forms. The relationship among voids, forms and our existence is experienced, from births to passings away."2 Can space be empty? How can form exist without the space that surrounds it? Through sound, video performance, text, digital prints, embroidery on silk, paint, and cast (lead) sculpt­ures, the artist invites the audience to experience space and form through common acts such as breathing, eating, seeing, hearing and touching that have been enraptured from their everyday life. This notion of movement away from the shelter of familiar, common identi ty references the symbol ic uncertainty contained both in indi­vidual insecurity and in contemporary social and cultural mobility. This shift from representation to strategy is being refined in "Born to be" where Abdullah Syed steps into a self­designed uniform in order to express the notion of uncertainty. The artist, himself, poses in a space reminiscent of a commercial photographer's studio decorated with green fabric.

Alternatively, he stands against a green, blue, red, and white coloured backdrop. In perfect accordance to the colours of the backdrop his right hand, covered with a white giove, again alternatively holds a rose, a jasmine, a sweet pea, and green sprigs of Jasmine. A further series of collages show the same model, but instead of the full portrait a half portrait is used. The artist challenges the scene through the varying compositions of colours and flowers which clearly carry multiple connotations on 'nationalism' and 'patriotism'.

The religious association that comes along with the colour green3 is particularly strong; the artist emph­asizes this by using this colour to carry each scene. Details such as the closed fist and shoulder buttons also refer to ranking, hierarchy, seems to function as a personal or collective peace maker, making up for missed promises and vows.

The process of portrayal appears to diminish in this body of work, from full, to half, to almost nothing in a series of drawings where only the colours of the photographic collages or the outline drawings of the head remain. The void-space gained is then filled with words, with "typographical work", as the artist himself likes to call them. In these drawings the notion of space, emptiness and nothingness is scrutinized whilst at the same time articulated through words and lines. An identity, never quite "unified and...increasingly fragmented and fractured"4, emerges through the artist's constant 'voiding' within a work, where the metaphoric aspect of the Void becomes ever more representational.

These variations of one and the same scene leave space for inter­pretations of various kinds but the political undertone - layer by layer intentionally filtered in by the artist - is not to be missed. While elements of the artists costume/uniform, such as the black sharwani and the black Jinnah Cap, refer to the Quaid-e­Azam, the duality between the white shalwar and the tucked-in military trousers clearly points to subse­quent leaders, perhaps also directed towards General Pervez Musharraf, the current President as well as Chief of the Pakistan Armed Forces. Although Musharraf chooses his wardrobe according to the situation, it is widely noted that he wears military dress more often than not in order to project his own military power and authority. conflict lies in the politics of 'nationalism' and national identity.

Abdullah Syed's intention is not to create an authentic uniform, but by posing himself in this "marriage­divorce"5 costume of politics and military, the artist scrutinizes "the concept of identity-building and culture"6 through the politics of representation yet abstracts the emotions the State intends to foster. Syed reminds us, in tumultuous polit­ical cultures, acts of resistance can be successfully played out in expressive and personal work. Instead of encouraging blind, drilled obedience, a space for possible change is opened up that is neither sympathetic nor critical but simply poses crucial questions.

That this specific attention to a national situation carries global repercussions is alluded in the artist's use of colours. Red and blue refer often to socialist and conservative parties respectively and are also, besides this, predominant flag colours of primarily western countries, whereas white and green are the two most distinct colours used in Islamic nations' flags.

Pakistan's seemingly endless flow of unstable governments, military dictatorships, its position in inter­national politics as well as ever growing inner political unrest, and the artist's memories of his own upbringing (in government schools where students would be drilled to learn discipline and obedience through

methods close to military mannerisms) are scrutinized by Syed to locate his nation's collective identity. The

Notes

1. From an email conversation with the artist, May, 2007.

2. Abdullah Syed, "Subliminal Voids", Exhibition catalogue, V.M. Art Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan, June, 2004.

3. Green is associated with Islam

4. Stuart Hall, Introduction: Who Needs "Identity"? in Questions of Cultural Identity, Stuart Hall, Paul du Gay, (London: SAGE, 1996), p. 4.

5. From an email conversation with ~e artist. May 2nd, 2007.

6. Zygmunt Bauman, From Pilgrim to Tourist - or a Short History of Identity, in: Questions of Cultural Identity, Stuart Hall, Paul du Gay, (London: SAGE, 1996), p.19

Simone Wille is an Independent art historian, curator, writer and art critic. She has contributed in numerous publications on south Asian art and cultural theories as well as artists' biographies in German and English language magazines and exhibition catalogues. She lives in Europe.