Desperately Seeking Paradise

Desperately Seeking Paradise II (2010-2011)

©Lisson Gallery

Rashid Rana

Lisson Gallery 

London

It has been a hectic and sad week with the loss of a close friend in New York, it makes you think of how fragile life really is. How quickly your little world can change and how we should not be allowed to complain over trivialities, but still keep doing it. We are human after all with the good and the bad that comes with it, but a reminder of gratitude for what we have, is sometimes of great value.

With an Au Pair arriving yesterday, I have time to delve into the world of Art again and I thought it would be appropriate to mention the great exhibit that is going on at the Lisson Gallery at the moment. 

It is rare that I get to view and write about an artist still living and working in Pakistan. Especially great to show such talent from a Country with such bad reputation after having hid Osama Bin Laden for years. 

Rashid Rana is seen as one of the most promising artists from South Asia today and lives and work in Lahore, Pakistan. 

©Lisson Gallery

Another view from "Desperately Seeking Paradise", a large installation that contains lots of tiny prints on aluminium and stainless steel. Together they become a view of a city, from another view it has a mirror effect and if you go close you see tiny pictures of buildings, streets and rooms.

Language Series 1 (2010-2011)

Lightjet Print (360x270 cm)

©Lisson Gallery

These large inkjet prints looks nearly like a painting from far, but close up you again see the tiny square photos that has been put together like a quilt. These can be bought in smaller editions as well. 

Books 2 (2010-2011)

©Lisson Gallery

A photographic sculpture that resembles layers of blocks but with images of books.

"Rana presents a series of key works in which he redeploys photographic imagery in varied formats including installation, sculpture, and large-scale photographic prints. These works see Rana drawing on techniques such as pixelation to problematise and reconfigure the relationship between part and whole, fragment and meaning."

  - Lisson Gallery

The Lisson Gallery just decided to represent Rashid Rana, so hopefully I will soon get to see more of his work. Not to say they were the first to present him, he has been shown at the Whitechapel (London), Asia Society (NY) Philips Contemporary (Mumbai) and Musee Guimet (Paris) among others.

With Love 

Kristin