Saturday, October 22, 2005 Profile: Pakistani Artist Amin Gulgee

Art as spiritual quest

Amin Gulgee calls himself a “surviving dinosaur” in the world of art.
The son of an accomplished painter, this Pakistani artist has earned a
special place for himself in the international arena through his
intensely spiritual metal sculptures and high-art jewellery pieces. His
exhibition is currently on at the Artspace Gallery. Rajeev Nair met him
in DubaiArt assumes many roles for Amin Gulgee, the accomplished
Pakistani sculptor. “I am an anachronism,” he laughs. “I don’t belong
to the contemporary art scene of Pakistan. I am a dinosaur. My
medium is copper-bronze, which is very labour intensive, and my
techniques are really old. I am a surviving dinosaur…but I guess I have
a role because I exist. I have been working for 15 years and I have
done exactly what I felt like.”Gulgee innovates upon tradition, and with
every work, be they many-feet sculptures or just-inches jewellery
pieces, he is on a constant journey of self-discovery through art. And
unlike many other artists who keep their works in unreachable glass
cases, Amin wants you to touch his works. He likes to connect with the
audience.Gulgee is intimately associated with “just art.” “I don’t teach
art; I don’t write about art. All I do is make art, and I work six days a
week. The most important thing for me is to make things. It is not what
you make; the act of making is what is fantastic to me.”The son of an
accomplished painter, Amin was not encouraged to follow art as a
career. He learnt Economics and Art History at Yale winning the Cogar
B. Goodyear Fine Arts award for his thesis on Moghul Gardens, which
was to trigger his interest in calligraphy. He however plunged headlong
into the world of art, and started off with jewellery pieces.He didn’t
follow his father’s footsteps and paint because, “he paints,” smiles
Gulgee. “He is big in painting. He is a legend. In art history, you don’t
have second acts.” His father’s influence has been “discipline.”
“Control gives you freedom,” says Gulgee. He repeats it to stress the
point. “When I say, I work every day, I don’t say I make things every
day. There are days when I tear down my work; it is easy to tear down
your own work.”Metal has been his forte, his passion, and this love for
the now less worked on medium, also complemented his affinity to
rediscover ancient civilizations. He inculcates motifs from Hinduism
and Buddhism in his works even as he pursues the remarkable
aesthetics of calligraph-art. He loves copper-bronze because “there is
something ancient about it. It stays, even after the paintings are
cracked and gone.”But that is not his quest for immortality. “You are
dead, you are gone. But when you do exactly what you want and
somebody wants to make it theirs, I want it to last for them, not for
me.”“I think we need to reinterpret, revaluate and reprocess our old
tradition, and it only shows how dynamic our culture is,” says Gulgee.
“I come from the sub-continent, where there are different levels of
spirituality. Having just come out of colonialism, we are still seeking a
balance between our multi-level heritage and modernity. I am trying to
seek inspiration from within rather than always from a Western source.
When I came back from University 15 years ago, I felt the need to look
within, and to seek inspiration from our mythology.”
Having grown up with the antique pieces collected by his parents,
Gulgee does not believe in duplicating art. “I am not interested in
replicating the past. I look into the passion that has gone into it. It is
like bringing your own midst into the past and looking at it.”Gulgee
says he tries to understand himself with his art. “Who am I? What does
it mean to be me? What does it mean to be from the sub-continent?”
And his answer, his understanding of himself, is that he is diverse.
“There are many things that make me up as one; there are many
things that make up as one from the sub-continent. You are very much
a part of the land you come from.”He believes that it is “perhaps” their
spiritual level that lends his works a different dimension. “The sub-
continent is a really funny place. Once you are from there, you are
always from there. It doesn’t leave you alone. For some reason, there
is gravity to our land.”He says today’s sub-continent artists are going
through a dilemma. “When they say about global art, it’s all Western.
The West is interested only in their topical issues, and our artists start
incorporating those issues into their art, irrespective of their relevance.
And yet, we come from such an old civilization of art.”The answer to
the dilemma, he says, is to keep the eyes open, be aware of whatever
is going on and also be aware of who you are. “Be aware of your times
but also be aware of where you come from.”Personally, Gulgee says,
he has learnt from both influences: American and the sub-continent.
“You don’t have to give up one to get another. Let us respect each
other; good work is good work.”His works on jewellery is an extension,
yet again, of the region’s vibrant jewellery culture. “I don’t approach
them on a jeweller’s perspective though. I don’t make to orders. Every
thing is one-off. If you like it, go get it. If you don’t like it, that is fine
too. We have a lot of traditional jewellery and a lot of them are dying
out. Maybe this will reawaken the tradition, and secondly, people
actually touch it and wear it, and I really love this idea of your work
touching somebody.”He doesn’t want to be called a fashion artist
because he doesn’t go after trends. “I use a fashion format though for
my performance art. Fashion merely helps create an ambience.”He has
hosted a number of solo exhibitions in the US, China, Portugal, Turkey,
France, Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE, apart from regular
showcases in his native Pakistan. Gulgee’s works adorn public
collections at The International Monetary Fund; Jordan National Gallery;
Hofstra University, Hempstead; and The WAH Centre, Brooklyn. His
jewellery art has been the toast of many a fashion show/performance
act, and he has been commissioned by illustrious organizations in
Pakistan and abroad. “I don’t sketch or draw my sculpture,” says
Gulgee. “I make my object, and then sit on it. It is at the back of your
mind. And then you start chopping and reassessing them. The
jewellery pieces, however, are more instinctive and quick. They are my
sketches, if you may.”Recently, he completed a 40-feet sculpture out
of copper, iron, steel, computer motherboards and glass, titled
Forgotten Text. “Text (sacred text) for me is fascinating as it defines a
culture and a civilization,” observes Gulgee. “The text I have used for
this sculpture is from Mohenjedaro. It has been my endeavour, in the
last 15 years as an artist, to lift text from the two dimensions of a page
and bring it into the three dimensions of sculpture.”The switch from
40-ft sculptures to one-inch jewellery pieces excites him. “I love that
change of scale; it keeps me fresh. From large sculptures you move to
highly detailed pieces.” He also sees a dialogue between the larger
and smaller pieces.His association with motherboards started when he
was commissioned to create a piece for IBM. “I tried to understand the
computer and started smashing computers. I was fascinated with what
I saw in its innards. The grid reminded me of cities from space; it
reminded me of perfect calligraphy, and I became passionate with
that.”A recipient of the Indus Vision Young Achiever Award and
Excellence in Art Award from the Sindh Government, Gulgee currently
hosts an exhibition of his works in Dubai at Artspace, the gallery on the
ninth floor at The Fairmont Dubai.