Violence takes place in a number of ways in individual lives and society, war being its ultimate manifestation. The post-9/11 incidents have reawakened the artists and generated urgency in creating representations of conflicts in contemporary art and literature. In Pakistan, many visual artists create imagery of or about violence and terror based on secondary sources of information, often reinforcing the widely accepted narratives. In rare cases they are its witnesses and survivors. With its own share of problems war photography becomes a way to inform the world about the extensive brutality but in contemporary art, representations of violence remains detached from reality.

In the digitally connected world, individual and collective fascination with violence has increased manifold. From spectacles of sacrifice to 24/7 coverage of calamities and wars, from films, animations and video games of murder, blood and gore to terrorist acts, we enthusiastically become consumers of the acts and their representations. The consumption of violence extends in art as artists create narratives of violence and offer them as a source of recreation for those who are least affected by it.

Quddus Mirza’s work, exhibited at the Canvas Gallery, Karachi, is a critique of the fascination with violence, terror and fear in everyday lives, media and art. The artist does not make any stylistic changes but brings together drawing, painting, collage and text from his oeuvre in the current body of work. The work may appear childlike in its compositional and spontaneous mark-making approaches. Children also construct their narratives by interweaving visuals and text; however, in Mirza’s paintings the text can be quite potent in its simplicity.

Quddus Mirza’s work is a critique of the fascination with violence, terror and fear in daily lives, media and art

On close observation, one can also see drawings of human bodies and objects created with mature understanding of three dimensional forms. According to the artist, instead of employing labour intensive ways to produce the work he uses a visual language that is easily discernible and relevant. He compares this to spoken language, which is democratic and can be used as a way to communicate by the literate and illiterate.

The artist’s canvas ranges from minimal to busy as seen in ‘Painting’ and ‘RIP’ respectively. The imagery is subtly violent — decapitated bodies, blood and weapons — but it is not awe-inspiring as one is accustomed to. In some works, the use of text with visuals promotes the obvious and in others the viewers are compelled to interact by composing violent or non-violent sentences from the given words. He says, “The process of painting also embodies the force, power and pleasure usually associated with acts of violence.”

The objective then is not only to proclaim that there is violence all around us but also to simultaneously provoke one to look inwards and to the process of creation. German composer, Karlheinz Stockhausen, reflecting on the spectacle of 9/11 had remarked that it is ‘the greatest work of art that is possible’.

With removal of art from everyday lives for spiritual needs that earlier ages and nations sought, it has become an intellectual and philosophical pursuit (Artur Danto, 1999). And therefore the images portraying violence do not serve the purpose that the earlier works of art did. Quddus Mirza’s work must be read in the light of philosophies of art that have extensively deliberated on the relationship of aesthetics and violence.

Philosophers argue that in the image saturated world the more we see violence in its real or aestheticised versions, the farther we move from truth. This creates illusions and a desire to see more —just like pornography — and therefore a cycle of fascination with violence and consumption of its aesthetic representations begin.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, November 29th, 2015