Usman Ghouri
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Usman Ghouri
The seven sins
By Salwat Ali
The latest hang at Canvas, in Karachi, ‘Eternal verses’ by Usman Ghouri, comes across as a visual indictment cum chronicle of aberrant behaviour. The artist projects the tragic spectacle of human digression with chilling intensity.
The seven deadly sins have long been a source of inspiration for writers and artists due to their subsequent influences on society. Also known as the cardinal sins they are a classification of vices used in early Christian teachings to educate and protect followers from the fallen man’s tendency to sin. Ghouri draws on this eternal struggle between vice and virtue to vent the voice of his conscience. Though his idiom is contemporary, he concocts his own mix of tradition and modernity and he critiques the concerns of his own age.
A series of five small paintings of reclining nudes, male and female, mimic Manet’s odalisque, Olympia, in attitude and mannerism but it is their allusion to lust, depravity and extravagance that gives them deeper meaning. Prominent use of ornamental folk motif, garish palette, lavish and crude application of gold and silver, indolent inviting postures of the human figures and exchange of affectionate gestures between male nudes succeed in creating an aura of unwholesome morality.
Alienation and estrangement between the individual and society and particularly between genders is another malaise of the urban milieu which Ghouri highlights through aloof, distrustful expressions and cold demeanor of his subjects. Projecting nature as pure and sublime he introduces the natural elements to emphasize his contrasts. Stony images of withdrawn individuals when posed with clusters of soft foliage appear all the more embittered.
Juxtaposing the seven sins against the divine scriptures, Ghouri tries to document ‘what is’, in the light of ‘what should be,’ writes Salwat Ali
Water and fish are inducted in his art as symbols of purity and their frequent appearance emphasizes the absence of this sentiment from human life. The artist also indulges in displacement. By encrusting the flesh of a male image with fish scales he creates an impression of unbecoming superficial ornamentation. Here, the sheen and shine of the scales is equated with the glitter of wealth and greed of a miser. Such artistic liberties need to be understood in context if their significance is to become meaningful.
Similarly loss of faith in the sublime and an increasing reliance on astrology, palm reading and fortune telling to determine the future is suggested through obvious drawings of open palms. Some hand images smeared with gold allude to the Midas touch, greed and over indulgence. Stern and tight-lipped with haunting, penetrating eyes, Ghouri’s subjects are grim reminders of a troubled humanity whose psyche is plagued with a thousand ills.
While concepts express an ideology for artists, technique and style are also instrumental in furthering an idea. Usman Ghori paints with the sensibility of a printmaker and his acrylic on canvas which is again pasted on board, and etching and aquatint pieces are as raw and caustic as the thoughts he is conveying.
Relentlessly scraped or crudely encrusted, his paint applications are palpable and their rough abrasive starkness is disturbing. Scratching and layering define an artist’s emotional pitch — it is that essential process of struggle which enables him to reach a level where he can emote with conviction. Ghouri’s painterly attitude is in tandem with his thought process because the imagery of Eternal verses is also coarse and severe with frequent recourse to primitive, stylized rudimentary forms of nature and mask-like expressions of his subjects. He divides space on the canvas by constructing squares and rectangles to create window-like insertions, scenic enclosures or gradual bifurcations where he travels from reality into the surreal. Indeed, his work often borders on the metaphysical as he tries to transcend the worldly to reference the other world.
Angst ridden and complex, Usman Ghouri’s cryptic imagery does not rest easy on the eyes. Pungent and raw, it is not attractive in the traditional sense but then it has the claw and bite that accosts the viewer.
Born in Sukkur, Ghouri received his Bachelor of Design from National College of Arts, Lahore, in 1992, and his Masters of Art from the University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia in the year 2000. He has been teaching printmaking since 1996 at Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture. The artist has held a number of solo exhibitions at home and has also participated in several group shows internationally in USA, UK, Japan, Oman and in Mauritius. He has worked for VASL the local chapter of Triangle Trust Network, UK and attended the International Artist Workshop in Mauritius in 2004. Currently preoccupied with the thematic thrust of Eternal verses he continues to paint his point of view.
