‘It Lies Beyond’ challenges viewer’s perception of what is inside and outside, close and distant, within and without, real and fictional while bridging and dismantling these binaries simultaneously, opening questions of the “nature versus man-made”. An ominous, serene seascape that, on a closer inspection, reveals the heaps of garbage that it is composed of. This matrix of garbage also contains within it the illustrations and paintings of sailing ships. Through these metaphors, this installation refers to the post-renaissance materialist inquiry, the explorations of and expansions to the other worlds, sea-trade, colonization, industrial revolution, consumerism followed by global climate change resulting in various natural calamities – all unfolding as various chapters of a saga that begins and ends with waters. The interactive experience is enhanced through Augmented Reality that overlays content onto real-life environments.
Rashid Rana
Dean, SVAD, BNU Lahore
Widely considered to be one of the leading artists of his generation in South Asia today, Rashid Rana emerged as the maker of an entirely new kind of art from Pakistan at the start of this century. His works are in prestigious collections including the British Museum London, Metropolitan Museum New York, Fukuoka Museum of Art Japan, and Saatchi Collection London.
Rashid Rana is the recipient of the Game-Changer Asia Art Award, the Sitara-e-Imtiaz, and SAVAC International Artist of the Year (2003).
Notable for his ideas and pictorial strategies, Rana has exhibited extensively at galleries and museums globally. His work has been shown at notable venues including Aga Khan Museum, Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Qatar, Singapore Art Museum, Hong Kong Art Center, Fotomuseum Switzerland, Asia Society New York, Kemper Art Museum, National Fine Arts Museum Taiwan, Institute of the Modern Art Australia, Royal Academy London, and Venice Biennale.
Primarily known for his art practice, Rashid Rana mediates between being an artist, curator, educator and visionary with a common thread of an unfixed and non-prescriptive view of geography and identity. It is this openness to diverse expressions of ideas that has led to his recent engagement with the project “Eart”.
He transformed the Pakistan Pavilion at the World Expo 2020 (21) Dubai into one of the largest artworks of its kind through artistic intervention. The pavilion exterior Unity of All that Appears garnered international recognition, taking home the Burj CEO Award for Best Pavilion for Exterior Design. His interest in transdisciplinary collaboration and pushing boundaries by creating new possibilities made him the ideal candidate to be recently appointed as the chairholder for UNESCO Chair on Inclusion through Art.
He is currently the Dean of the School of Visual Arts and Design at Beaconhouse National University in Lahore.
