Public days: March 16 - 19, 2011
Chemould Prescott Road presents a suite of works by Rashid Rana this year at Art Dubai 2011.
Widely considered one of the most prominent and original contemporary artists working in South Asia today, Rana explores constructs of media and identity, reflecting upon and critiquing the impact of globalisation worldwide whilst simultaneously exploring the local and competing influences of tradition and modernity in contemporary South Asia and particularly Pakistan. Distinct for his ideas, imagery and pictorial strategies, his work has been shown extensively around the world, especially at some prestigious museums in Europe, North America, Australia and Asia. His work, in the past decade and a half, portrays dramatically different modes such as paintings, stainless steel sculptures, video installation, photo-sculptures and photo mosaics, each time finding a freshness of purpose and a surprising inventiveness of visual language. More recently he is associated with developing a conceptually driven, well-informed art practice that maintains a pixelated attention to formal concerns. These works cut across conventional notions of the scale and status of the photographic object, opening up its potential to represent cultural, social and physical realities. His works revolve around a subtle simultaneous exploration of media and identity – both bound by a sharp political edge as he satirizes pop culture and looks to reinterpret varied elements of art and cultural history. His new media projects deal with everyday issues ranging from tradition to faith and from urbanization to popular culture. Using photography and video installations he depicts his commentary and parody of both social and political scenarios. Through the relationship between the larger image and its constituent elements, he leads us to meditations about part and whole, surface and depth, fragment and meaning.
