Form/Facade

‘Forms and Facades” exhibition is the culmination of Vasl Artists’ Association’s nine-week summer residency June 10 – July 7, 2019 in which three emerging artists were invited to develop and reflect on a personal concept. The three artists, Mina Arham and Zahra Asim from Lahore and Raasmia Minal Haque from Karachi have coincidently worked with insightful forms and conceptual metamorphosis. Mina Arham graduated with a degree in Fine Art from the National College of Arts, Lahore in 2014. Since then she has exhibited vastly in Pakistan and was also the recipient of the Gasworks Residency in London in 2015. She is also the Curator of Global Shapers Lahore, an initiative of the world economic forum. Mina Arham has created a catalogue of forms of the urban homes of Karachi – homes and facades that may not be deemed documentation worthy, using drawing as a tool to remember and gain control of something intangible. In doing so, she is no more a viewer of the space as an outsider, connected inextricably and intangibly to these forms and spaces.

Raasmia Minal Haque completed her Bachelors in Architecture from Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi, in 2017. Raasmia has participated in various programs such as heritage conservation with Yasmeen Lari, IAPEX and Arcasia and currently works at ARCOP Associates. She will be pursuing her Masters in Foot wear design later in 2019 from UAL London College of Fashion. Raasmia Haque has experimented by evolving functional objects in leather. She has cross pollinated forms and multiple functionalities to develop a hybrid idea that is diverse, dynamic and has the potential to shape and response to two different types of activities at the same time. Zahra Asim is a Lahore based artist. She graduated with a Fine Art degree from National College of Arts, Lahore in 2014 and completed her Masters in Art and Design from Beaconhouse National University, Lahore in 2019. Asim has exhibited her work in numerous group shows both nationally and internationally. During Vasl residency, Zahra Asim considered and reflected on the building structures, forms, grills and facades of Karachi, which surrounded and overwhelmed her creative contemplations. She has evolved these forms into insightful sculptures.The scale and spatial form of her work belies the urban and human scale of Karachi, upending the hierarchy for the viewer. In this process, Zahra confronts the spatial experiences through her creative strategies.