Cornerhouse Presents Rashid Rana in His First Major UK Show

Written by Pauline Linehan Friday, 21 October 2011 21:30

Manchester, UK.- Cornerhouse, with Asia Triennial Manchester 11, is pleased to present the first major UK public solo show from Rashid Rana, widely considered to be the most prominent and original contemporary artist working in South Asia today. "Rashid Rana: Everything Is Happening At Once" is on view at the gallery until December 18th. The exhibition includes new and recent work that cuts across conventional notions of the scale and status of the photographic object, opening up its potential to represent cultural, social and physical realities. The works in this exhibition, spanning 1992 to the present, blur the divide between two and three-dimensional forms to challenge the viewer’s understanding of the world in which they live. Photo sculptures, large-scale photo mosaics, installations and new video work subvert perception of size and structure and urge us to look deeper into the relationship between the fragment and the bigger picture.

Rashid Rana was born in Lahore, Pakistan. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan in 1992, and a Master of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Art in Boston, Massachusetts, US in 1994. He is the head of fine art department and one of the founding faculty members of the School of Visual Arts and Design (SVAD), Beaconhouse National University, Lahore. Rashid Rana has emerged as a leading name among the young-generation artists on the contemporary art scene. He is known to develop a conceptually driven, well-informed art practice, which maintains a pixelated attention to formal concerns. 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 are a visual commentary and parody of socio-political scenarios. Deftly traversing between the diverse mediums like painting, video, installation and photography, Rashid Rana has emerged as one of the leading artist of his generation, making his presence felt globally. His work deals with everyday issues encompassing a wide range of themes from urbanization and popular culture to faith and tradition. He often employs video installations and still photography. A case in point is his series of composite photomontages in which each main image is constructed out of countless smaller photos of diametrically opposite subjects. The viewer confronts a moment of sudden withdrawal after moving closer to the picture when one becomes aware of the several tiny images that constitute the larger one.


It is the aesthetic concept of the grid deftly exploring the language of minimalism and geometric abstraction that serves as the precious connecting his monumental work to his mentor Zahoor ul Akhlaq. A foray into video art has resulted in seminal installations such as ‘Meeting Point’ (2006) in which the artist recalls anticipation from terrorism by projecting two airplanes facing and seeming to collide into each other, with the loud airspace audio. His recent international exhibitions include: Solo Exhibition, Lisson Gallery, London, Perpetual Paradox Solo Exhibition at Musee Guimet, Paris France (2010, Where dreams Cross: 150 years of photography from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, Fotomuseum|Winterthur, Switzerland, and Whitechapel Gallery, London, UK; The Empire Strikes Back; India Art Today, Saatchi Gallery (2010) The Power of Ornament, Lower Belvedere, Vienna; Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan, Asia Society, New York (2009), View Points and Viewing Points: Asian Art Biennial at the National Fine Arts Museum, Taichung, Taiwan (2009), Re-Imaging Asia, House of World Cultures, Berlin (2008); Mirror Worlds: Institute of the Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia; Beyond the Page: Contemporary Art from Pakistan, Manchester Art Gallery and Asia House, London; 1st Singapore Biennale; Grid<>Matrix, Kemper Art Museum, St Louis, US; 5th Asia Pacific Triennale, Queensland Gallery of Art, Australia (2006); 3rd Fukuoka Triennale, Fukuoka Museum of Art, Japan, (2005); Playing with a Loaded Gun, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel, Germany. Although trained as a painter, Rana has recently turned his attention to various genres of new media art, including digital photography, installation, and video. Nevertheless, the artist dislikes being defined only as a painter or photographer. Not fond of hard boundaries, he prefers the liberty to choose for himself. Rana’s work deals with everyday issues ranging from faith and tradition to urbanization and popular culture. He uses photography and video installations to depict his commentary and parody of both social and political scenarios. In his composite photomontages, for instance, each main image is made up of several thousand smaller photographs of diametrically opposite subjects. There is a moment of sudden withdrawal when the viewer moves closer to the picture and becomes aware of the tiny images that compose the larger one. However, Rana's formal and conceptual departure from this traditional style and medium is distinctly his own. The stark contrast of the Muslim women in their traditional dress with the exposed nudity of the Western porn stars forces a powerful shift in focus between the poles of these two stereotypes and alludes to the great cultural divide between East and West. Fascinated by how meaning is often misunderstood in our media-oriented society, Rana's photographic practice cleverly creates images that offer an alternative view of how popular ideas and prejudices are created.

Cornerhouse is Manchester’s international centre for contemporary visual arts and independent film. Cornerhouse was founded by the Greater Manchester Visual Arts Trust, chaired by Sir Bob Scott, and opened in 1985. They’ve been at the forefront of Manchester’s vibrant cultural scene ever since. Their patrons are Danny Boyle, Damien Hirst and Helen Mirren. Located on Oxford Road, Cornerhouse houses three floors of contemporary art galleries, three screens showing the best of independent cinema, a bar, café and a bookshop and we get around 500,000 visitors every year. They also operate an international distribution service for contemporary visual arts books and catalogues, working with over 95 publishers including Arnofini, BALTIC, British Council Visual Arts and Design Publications, Hayward Gallery Publishing, the Henry Moore institute, ICA, The Lowry, Modern Art Oxford, Photoworks and Picture This. Cornerhouse's mission, as it still is, was to be a place where audiences, artists and filmmakers are brought together to experience and debate contemporary ideas through a unique, risk taking, cross art-form and culturally diverse high quality programme of art and film. Visit the centre's website at ... http://www.cornerhouse.org

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