Malleability, the current project, is a thematic extension of the subjects that cultivate my creative practice: sublime and melancholy. I paint mundane objects and the happenings in everyday life, from the pleasure that natural beauty yields to an effrontery of socio-political systems. The subject of this project comprises flowers that turn Lahore, the city of gardens, mind- blowing at the time of bloom.

My art practice is a process; I trust this method and do constant scrutiny destroying and remaking work with no plan and guarantee of success, no formula, trusting in hard work. During the process of image-making, I look at the painting and look at it again, and look at it again as it continues. “The longer you look at an object, the more abstract it becomes, and, ironically, the more real,”(Lucian Freud). I don’t tend to look at meaning or content rather critically observe the formal attributes of a painting which are of crucial importance as stated by Clement Greenberg. The emotional or representational content is not important; it limits the sensational enjoyment. For me, meaning in painting comes naturally. I draw marks. These marks correspond to drawing, painting and sculptural forms; it’s a kind of tension amidst these physically embodied concepts. Neither it’s realism nor it’s pure abstraction. It is process oriented distortion.

The painting surfaces play a pivotal role in developing the imagery. The surface not only plays a supportive role rather it becomes a part of the final image. For this reason, I have used wood, colour mat board, and handmade paper for this project. In addition to the physically embodied concepts of mark- making, the exhibited works have tension between painterly and linearity. These linear design motives have been extracted from the compositional framework of miniature painting – PADSHAHNAMA. The amalgamation of these elements and methods results in the tension between simplification and complexity. Hence the oeuvre appears in uncanny abstraction and distortion of subject, materiality and method.