A solo exhibition held at the VM Gallery, Karachi, titled: `Connections’, showcases the work of Tariq Usman Luni, a young sculptor who graduated from the NCA in 2002. Describing the path that led him to the tradition of sculpture he spoke of the inspiration culled from an agricultural background and his home in the village of Luni, Sibi, where he was born in 1979. In Sibi, Tariq took on the responsibility of looking after his father’s garden stocking it with seeds and plants. Their growth fascinated him as he studied the various stages of plant life and the shapes emerging from the earth. Curious to analyze the process he cut into the bulbs and roots to examine the interconnection of nature’s design and one finds references to his discoveries in the collection of wood carved sculpture on display. The strength of the collection lies in the expressive content of the assembled work, the subject matter acknowledging the artist’s link with his roots. Here one finds inspiration from the natural world and man’s intervention. The predominant factor appears to be the cycle of life common to all living things, in which the female symbol is given significance as a giver of life.

“I had no concept of art as a child, but I loved to make toys, dolls and puppets out of wood and clay. During the rainy season we would go up to the hills where there is an ancient historic mound. The rain disturbed the earth which gave up all sorts of relics. We found pottery pieces, terracotta figures and all the time we searched for gold, not realizing the treasure of the historic fragments so close to hand. When I grew older I realized these were on par with the Indus Valley Civilization relics. Another of my great childhood delights was fishing. I would sit for hours by the canal assimilating the beauty of the scenery around me and marveling at the infinite textures of nature’s handiwork. Without being aware of art I found it all around me and absorbed it into my psyche.”

After completing his formal education at the Government Degree College, Sibi, Tariq made for Quetta, where he completed a one year Diploma Course of Drawing and Painting, at the Arts Council, Adara-e-Saqafat. During the course, a workshop on sculpture proved a deciding factor in the young man’s future and he applied for and received admission to the National College of Arts, Lahore. A new learning experience began, full of challenge, opportunity, hard work and lasting friendships. After college hours Tariq worked on a number of assignments including design projects and graphics, gleaning experience in set design, video film making, and communications. At NCA he studied Photography and Computer Graphics as well as Fine Art.

“The years at the National College of Art, were very important. It was there I realized my potential to carve my thoughts in physical space and give them tangibility. I understood the power of my feelings towards the past and found ways to express them concisely.”

The collection of seventeen pieces on display at the VM Gallery, are carved in Deodar wood and are strongly organic in form. The collection begins with a contemporary form inspired by a Bee. “While taking honey from a hive, I saw the way bees tried to defend their territory, stinging the attackers and dying in the process. This instinctive act affected me strongly. The interconnecting convex and concave shapes creating the art works, differ from varied angles, from one aspect smooth from another dramatically distorted, creating movement in space. Tactile, gourd-like forms are smoked into dark, textured areas contrasting with other smooth planes of natural wood. “In my work I try to bring in environmental elements creating spaces in my work to let the outside enter. There is a cave near my home that is so cool it is like entering an air conditioned space. There is an opening where, in the heat of the day people enter to rest in the cool interior. This phenomenon I noticed in a terracotta form found on the mound near my village. It is a very minimal sculpture of an ox moulded in the white clay of the region and it has a space in the head, perhaps signifying an eye or a space for a thread to be strung. A traditional shape of our area is a water carrier, almost turtle-like; it is made of terracotta, a flattened oval with a hole for drinking from and another to thread a rope to carry it on one’s shoulder. Similarly, the traditional storage containers used are terracotta and they are built with round openings to release the grains when necessary. All these inherent elements are present in my modern vocabulary”.