Description
he Lufz Series (words series) is an offshoot of my previous text-based work that I started while perusing masters in Santinekatan. Largely inspired by the early conceptual artists use of text, for instances, the works of Joseph Kosuth, John Baldessari and other post 60s artists who treated text as a new medium or a means to arrive at the dematerialization of art as object. One of the most significant differences in the Lufz series is to enter and entertain text, and particularly Urdu text, as both a literal expression and a poetic dimension. Each piece, generally, engages two conflicting Urdu words. And by means of juxtaposing a word with its binary the aim is to foreground the paradigm of double-coding which is an inherent character of any semiotic engagement. The works are at the same time meditating on the poetic vocabulary of some of the noted Indian Urdu poets, like Ghalib, Mir, Firaq, Faiz, Majaz and so on. In general the text has always been there in disguise, behind, above or below the work of art. In my more or less arduous use of text I seek a certain approximation where my mute forms/images become mutant allies in the theatre of text. In other words, it is symptomatic of a schizophrenic standpoint that I venture to react to a single experience simultaneously from two opposing stances