The three decades of the artist based in Karachi Amin Gulgee artwork Eventra of metal sculptures, the art of daring performance and collaborative conservation. A new well -structured volume on his work, entitled Atin Llel Glide: No Man's Land and edited by John McCarry, is neither entirely academic nor a reasoned catalog; He balances the two approaches with many images, frank writings written by Gulgee art comrades and too brief semi-scholar essays. I will borrow the words of the writer HM Naqvi from his own trial engaging on the extravagant performance of Gulgee: the “stimulation of attention”, like the artist himself.
Here is why: Only a handful of books presented a critical discourse on the stimulating artistic practice of Gulgee. In the 1998 seminal book Image and identity: fifty years of painting and sculpture in PakistanThe late Pakistani historian of art, Akbar Naqvi, alluded to his disdain for the characterization of the artist of his own work as “Islamic art”. Twenty-six years old and several catalogs later, No man of the earth Modifies this gap by revealing pluralist perspectives on Gulgee's work.
From sewing jewelry and biomorphic forms to mathematical and monumental structures, Gulgee's copper works illustrate its mastery of equipment and technique. His textured self-portraits are self-deprecated. The smallest calligraphic conceptions are soothing. Invoke spirituality and scienceThey present a demanding commitment between Islamic and South Asian tradition and modern art through what the art historian Kishwar Rizvi calls a “range of formal strategies, in his own terms” in his essay. The scientist Simone Wille also writes on the modular qualities of Gulgee sculptures, such as “Metropolis II” (2006) and “Towers” (2008), which are manufactured by welding copper sheets and intended to be seen on all sides. Unfortunately, the two tests little add to the existing perspectives on the artist and ended suddenly. I wanted anymore.
Meanwhile, in a refreshing interview, the conservative Maryam Ekhtiar poses to the artist relevant questions on her fascination for sculpture, the scale and the effects of the covid-19 pandemic on her practice. Gulgee demystifies its process: it does not outline. The sculptures are created intuitively in his studio, where he is “liable to his process”. He does not take commissions because they coginate his creative license. He has the Moghol Charlie or Garden Crossa-Axial, “Spider” by Louise Bourgeois (1996), the disappearance of Karachi Botal Gali or Bottle Street which takes its name from the stores selling bottles of perfume, verses from the Koran and Güell de Gaudi park in Barcelona among its inspirations. In particular, the artist remembers the trauma he endured following 2007 murders of her parents – The international renowned artist Ismail Gulgee and his wife Zaro. He thinks of the search for recovery through performative works like “Healing” (2010), in which the public looked at his colleagues artists from Gulgee shaving his head. He has reconstructed performance as Healing II In the middle of death in the pandemic, this time without spectators.
A sincere note from the artist, printed next to a drawing, “Portrait of My Son (1982), sketched by the Senior Gulgeeinforms us that the contributors of the book – including artists, conservatives, art historians, a political scientist and an author – have received no restrictions on their tests. This freedom has facilitated distinctive approaches: an original essay by the artist's commissioner Alex Worth, who mentions with mischievous the eccentric social buffoonery of Gulgee, and a play by Gemma Sharpe academic placing his performance in conversation with that of other Pakistani artists such as Durriya Kazi and the deceased Imam Ali, as well as Marina Abramović.
He says a lot about the values of priority to commercial success on critical artistic discourse in the Pakistani edition which, despite the influence of Gulgee, No man of the earth is the artist's first complete monograph. It should certainly not be the last.
Atin Llel Glide: No Man's Land (2025), edited by John McCarry, is published by Skira and is available online and via independent booksellers.
