Mansoora Hassan
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Mansoora Hassan
ARTWART: A spiritual journey
By Nadeem Zaidi
Portraying the ultimate spiritual and mystical experience, the painting exhibition by Mansoora Hassan at the Tanzara Gallery in Islamabad illustrates the need of a critique of visual culture that is alert to the power of images of good and evil and that is capable of discriminating the variety and historical specificity of its use.
The mixed media work influenced by Sufi thought on the theme ‘Kontinuum’ has been inspired by texts of classical as well as contemporary writers and poets. Pulp paper painting is an exciting aspect of papermaking in which Hassan mixes natural colour pigments into finely beaten natural fibres. The artist’s hand made sheet of paper acts like a canvas and the pigmented pulps become the paint. She applies varied mixed media techniques on rag and hand made paper.
Her work is a mixture of architectural elements, masks and gestures, which are woven into mixed media paintings on canvas and hand made paper.
As a creative artist Mansoora has explored diverse dimensions using varied medium of expression. She is a photographer, painter and also a video artist and has earned repute in all these expressive modes.
Although architectural elements, marks, symbols, and gestures, continue to be woven into the multi-layered mixed media paintings, the ‘process’ from which the final work is derived is now secondary to what the ‘story’ communicates.
An installation is Mansoora’s ongoing work in progress. It’s a video painting and photography installation comprising images from the Seema ceremony on Shab-e-Arus, the nuptial night that Maulana Rumi passed on to be united with his beloved, the Creator.
As a contemporary image-maker, Hassan wishes to push artistic limits through diverse aesthetic considerations and visual explorations of select social and political issues. She is a member of the board of directors for various American art institutions and has participated in more than fifty exhibitions all over the world.
It is worth mentioning that in one of her confrontational ‘Burqa project 911’ she combined icons of the Eastern and Western world by photographing herself in a Burka in front of American monuments such as the Capitol Hill, the Lincoln Memorial and Ground Zero. The result is to be seen as a commentary on the dogmas of Islam, on retaining one’s own identity in cosmopolitan cities and on the limitations on individual freedom in the context of the hunt on terrorists. On the basis of her ‘Burqa project 911’ Hassan was interrogated by the FBI.
Hasan’s work has a distinctive flavour that sets her apart from other modern artists. Seeking a basic commonality of spirit in an increasingly dissonant world, she uses an approach that depends upon a tension between dimness and luminosity to articulate her artistic vision — imagery concealed in multiple veils.
Mansoora Hassan was born in Peshawar, Pakistan. After graduating from the National College of Arts, Lahore, she got an MFA from Pratt Institute, New York. Her works are in many public and private collections in the US as well as prominent collections internationally, including the Gulf Corporation Council, Saudi Arabia, Crown Princess Sarvath of Jordan, Two mixed media paintings, from the ‘Rumi’ series, are in the collection of the British Museum, London, England.
Mansoora Hasan’s work is a mixture of architectural elements, masks and gestures, which are woven into mixed media paintings on canvas and hand made paper
