Amin Gulgee

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Amin Gulgee
Looking for the Magic Centre

Date: February 25, 2009

Time: 7:30 PM
Venue: Artspace Gallery, The Gate Village, Bldg. 3, Level 2
Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)
Duration: March 12, 2009

UNDER THE PATRONAGE OF

H.E. Dr. Omar Bin Sulaiman

Governor of Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC)

and
The Managing Director of Dubai Culture and Arts Authority (DCAA)
Supported by:

Supported by:

The Gate Village Bldg. 3, Level 2, Dubai International Financial Centre | Tel. +971 4 323 0820 | Fax: +971 4 323 0821
info@artspace-dubai.com | www.artspace-dubai.com

LOOKING FOR THE MAGIC CENTRE

By Amin Gulgee

The centre is always hidden inasmuch as our point of origin, as it appears on the
page, when investigated closely constitutes in itself a field or domain, the centre of
which will continually elude placing in the strictest physical terms. Even the most elementary particles of the atomic nucleus surround an unmanifest centre. For practical
purposes, however, we place the still point of our compasses on the centre and move
the other to inscribe an arc. 1

So states Keith Critchlow in his book Islamic Patterns, when describing the point of origin. This point of
origin, when extended, creates a line which, by its arc, becomes the diameter of a circle. By extending the
circle by its diameter, geometric pattern can be created.
What intrigued me about Mr. Critchlows book was his concept of the point of origin. As he writes, The
nature of origins or the creation point of a subject is grounded in mystery. The nature of a point - the simple
self-evident origin of geometry - is one such mystery: is it possible that a point has no dimension, except
that it be a metaphysical point, and how can it occupy place if space has not yet been created from its
unfolding? 2

Thus, according to Mr. Critchlow, the point of origin eludes definition, and yet is necessary to establish
when creating pattern. This idea finds a strong resonance in my own art practice, not only because my
work often deals with repetition and pattern, but because I have long wondered about the mysterious origin
of any creative idea.
In making my sculpture, I do not sketch or draw the work. It is a fluid, intuitive process in which shapes appear in my mind and then are translated directly upon my material. It is a personal journey which in itself is
wholly absorbing and highly charged. I know that there are no absolute answers in this search for the past
and the future, only more questions. And even if the magic center remains unfathomable, the submission
to the process continues.

Keith Critchlow, Islamic Patterns: An Analytical and Cosmological Approach (London: Thames and Hudson, 1976), 9.

Ibid, 7.

Amin Gulgee (Pakistan)

Sculptor Amin Gulgee is an innovator of tradition. His medium is metal, his inspiration the varied and rich
spiritual history of his native Pakistan. In the twenty years that the artist has been exhibiting, his work has
followed many different directions, from the purely abstract to work that is inspired from Hindu mythology,
Buddhist civilization and Islamic calligraphy. Although diverse, these directions influence and nourish one
another for they all attempt to depict the spirituality of man.
Well-established in Pakistan, the artist has also exhibited extensively in the USA, Europe, the Middle East
and the Far East. The artists numerous shows include Open: Prima Esposizione di Sculture e Installazioni
in Venice, where he showed alongside Csar and ten other international sculptors, and a solo show at the
IMF Gallery in Washington. Chief art critic of the Washington Times, Joanna Shaw-Eagle, wrote on January 1, 2000 in her review of his one-man show at the IMF: Mr. Gulgee is an artist to watch both for the
originality of his ideas and the sensuous, handsome quality of his work.

SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2008
2007
2006
2005

2003
2002
2000
1999

1998

1997
1996

1994

1992

1991
1990

Drawing the Line, Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (catalogue)

Continuity, Nitanjali Art Gallery, New Delhi, India (catalogue)
Body and Soul, Wei-Ling Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (catalogue)
Other Works, Canvas Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
The Search for Light, Townhouse Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
ArtSpace, Dubai, UAE
Museu da Agua, Lisbon, Portugal
Charbagh: Open Studio IV, Karachi, Pakistan
The ArRum Gallery, London, UK
Open Studio III, Karachi, Pakistan
The Gallery of the IMF, Washington, DC, USA (catalogue)
The Soni Gallery, London, UK
The Peterborough Museum, Peterborough, UK
The Arabian Gallery, Dubai, UAE
Art Gallery, Islamabad, Pakistan
Ankara Hilton, Ankara, Turkey
Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA, USA
The Soni Gallery, London, UK
Open Studio II, Karachi, Pakistan
Open Studio, Karachi, Pakistan
Paramount Studios, Los Angeles, CA, USA
The Galleria, Houston, TX, USA
Lahore Art Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan
Benefit for UNICEF, New York, NY, USA
Rida Gallery, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
Al-Nahda Royal Society, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
United Nations, New York, NY, USA
Zenith Gallery, Washington, DC, USA
The Art Gallery, Islamabad, Pakistan
Lahore Art Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan
Inter-Continental Hotel, Muscat, Oman
Inter-Continental Hotel, Dubai, UAE
Indus Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan

1989

1988

Zenith Gallery, Washington, DC, USA

Embassy of Pakistan, Washington, DC, USA
The Lawrence Gallery, New York, NY, USA
Pakistan American Cultural Center, Karachi, Pakistan

FATHER AND SON EXHIBITIONS

1997
1995
1994
1993

The Ismaili Centre, London, UK

Jordan National Gallery, Amman, Jordan (catalogue)
Embassy of Pakistan, Paris, France
Commonwealth Institute, London, UK
Parliament House, Islamabad, Pakistan
Meridian International Center, Washington, DC, USA

GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2008

2007

2006

2005
2004
2003
2002

Paradise Lost: A Tribute to John Milton, WAH Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Simply Paper! IVS Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan (catalogue)
CIGE, Beijing, China
Art Expo, Mumbai, India
Inaugural Exhibition, National Art Gallery, Islamabad, Pakistan (catalogue)
Reading the Subtext, Alliance Franaise, Karachi, Pakistan
Islamic Tradition in Contemporary Art, WAH Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA
18@8, Wei-Ling Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (catalogue)
Berkeley Square Gallery, London, UK (catalogue)
The Art Mill, Mumbai, India
Calligraphy, Amin Gulgee Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan (catalogue)
Body, Amin Gulgee Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan (catalogue)
18@8, Wei-Ling Gallery, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (catalogue)
Beyond Borders, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, India (catalogue)
Old Masters, Young Voices, Al-Hamra Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan (catalogue)
Beijing Biennale, Beijing, China (catalogue)
Dish Dhamaka, Amin Gulgee Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
A Tribute to Ali Imam, Indus Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan (catalogue)
The Kufa Gallery, London, UK
KaraArt, Alliance Franaise, Karachi, Pakistan
Uraan, Amin Gulgee Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan (catalogue)

2001

2000

1999
1998
1997

1996
1989
1988

The Takhti Project, Gallerie Sadequain, Karachi, Pakistan (catalogue)

Vasl, Amin Gulgee Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan (catalogue)
KaraArt, Alliance Franaise, Karachi, Pakistan
Pakistan: Another Vision, Brunei Gallery, London, UK (catalogue)
Qalm: An Exhibition of Calligraphy, Mohatta Palace Museum, Karachi, Pakistan
KaraArt, Alliance Franaise, Karachi, Pakistan
Millennium Show, Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi, Pakistan
Pakistan Pavilion, Expo, Hanover, Germany
1999 Group Show, Chawkandi Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
Open: Prima Esposizione di Sculture al Lido, Venice, Italy (catalogue)
Contemporary Artists from India and Pakistan, Galerie Martini, Hong Kong
Fifty Years of Art in Pakistan, The Connoisseur Gallery, London, UK
Eighth Asia Biennial, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Inaugural Show, The WAH Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA
Writing as Art in Islam, Hofstra University, Hempstead, NY, USA (catalogue)
MIT, Boston, MA, USA
The Wave Gallery, New Haven, CT, USA

PUBLIC WORKS
Forgotten Text, Bilawal Roundabout, Karachi Pakistan
Steps, Parliament House Entrance, Islamabad, Pakistan
The Message, The Presidency, Islamabad, Pakistan
Minar, Quaid-e-Azam International Airport, Karachi, Pakistan
Habitat, Aga Khan Center, Houston, TX, USA
Char Bagh, The Serena Hotel, Islamabad, Pakistan
Man and Computer, IBM Museum, Karachi, Pakistan
Balance, BASF, Karachi, Pakistan
Allah, Marriott Hotel, Islamabad, Pakistan
Cube, Citibank Gold Office, Lahore, Pakistan
Fragment IV, Standard Chartered Priority Banking Office, Karachi, Pakistan
Sufi, Aga Khan Foundation, New York, NY, USA
Father and Son, Merck Marker, Karachi, Pakistan

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Galeri Petronas, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
National Art Gallery, Islamabad, Pakistan
Jordan National Gallery, Amman, Jordan
The International Monetary Fund, Washington, DC, USA
Hofstra University Museum, Hempstead, NY, USA
The WAH Center, Brooklyn, NY, USA
CURATORIAL WORK
2006
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998

Calligraphy, Amin Gulgee Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan (with Sheherbano Hussain)

Body, Amin Gulgee Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan (with Sheherbano Hussain)
Dish Dhamaka, Amin Gulgee Gallery, Karachi, Pakistan
Urban Voices IV, Sheraton Hotel, Karachi, Pakistan
Urban Voices III, Sheraton Hotel, Karachi, Pakistan
Urban Voices II, Sheraton Hotel, Karachi, Pakistan
Urban Voices, Sheraton Hotel, Karachi, Pakistan

AMIN GULGEE GALLERY

2006

2004
2002
2001

18@8: Kuala Lumpur to Karachi; Lim Wei-Ling, Curator; (catalogue)

Calligraphy; Amin Gulgee and Sheherbano Hussain, Curators; (catalogue)
Body; Amin Gulgee and Sheherbano Hussain, Curators; (catalogue)
Gino Marotta
Uraan; Niilofur Farrukh and Saira Irshad, Curators; (catalogue)
Dish Dhamaka; Amin Gulgee, Curator
Vasl (catalogue)

WORKSHOPS
2001

Vasl: International Artists Residency Program, Gadani, Pakistan

Working Group Member

PERFORMANCES / FASHION SHOWS

2006
2005
2003
2001
2000
1996

River Dreams of Alexander, Royal Palms, Lahore, Pakistan

Seeking Buddha, Pakistan Pavilion, Expo, Nagoya, Japan
Mohenjendaro, Royal Albert Hall, London, UK
Sola Singhar, Sheraton Hotel, Karachi, Pakistan
Alchemy, Lahore Fort, Lahore, Pakistan
Alchemy, Sheraton Hotel, Karachi, Pakistan
Jewelry for Mary McFadden Spring/Summer, New York Fashion Week, USA

AWARDS
2005
2001
1999
1993

Presidents Pride of Performance, Government of Pakistan

Young Achiever Award, IndusVision
First Award for Jewelry, Pakistan School of Fashion Design
Calligraph-Art Award, 2nd International CaligraphArt Competition
Excellence in Art Award, Sindh Government

EDUCATION
B.A. in Economics and Art History, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA, 1987
Recipient of A. Conger Goodyear Fine Arts Award for Thesis on Moghul Gardens

1+1+1: THE SYNTHESIS OF LIFE, RELIGION AND ARTISTIC PRACTICES

IN
AMIN GULGEES SCULPTURES
By Atteqa Ali

The concept of the total work of art has perhaps been in peoples thinking since ancient timesand, it seems
that it was a strong guiding force back then. Works of architecture, like Hindu temples, included sculptures
within the divine space used for connecting the faithful and the gods. Art, life, and religion found a holistic
expression in these multidisciplinary environments. Today, there are clear separations within the arts, even
though it is apparent that a creative individual can express him or herself in many ways. Amin Gulgee is such
a person. He is a sculptor, jewelry maker, director, performer, and curator. The first objects he created were
large and heavy, yet he referred to them as jewelry. He also had intentions of making wearable sculptures. In
fact, his jewelry collection is often large scale and has a sculptural quality. The artist espouses the philosophy
of the total work of art by adopting a lifestyle that allows several creative modes to flourish and crossover into
each other, and, as such, for art to bleed into life and religion.
For nearly two decades, Amin Gulgee has been creating metal sculptures to explore and express his life,
religion, and extended environment. In his words, I work in order to understand myself. It is a highly personal
journey in which I try to discover a balance with my inner self, my culture and my God.1 The stability that
he attempts to achieve is one that moves beyond false divisions that exist among life, art, and religion. In
this union, a strong web is woven. Out of his self-evaluation has emerged a formal practice that strives to be
visually compelling and innovative, while, at the same time, conceptually meaningful to viewers beyond him.
It possesses a complexity that cannot be explained simply.
In fact, Amin Gulgees work brings to mind contradictory beliefs. These dualities coalesce to produce multilayered objects that tell about the intricacies of life and art. A contradiction found in his art is that on the
one hand, it is grounded in Modernist concepts and visual languages. For example, the material he often
utilizesmetalrecalls the choice of well known sculptors like August Rodin and Henry Moore, who embraced the revolutionary and anti-academic spirit of Modernist art. Modernism in Europe rejected the past
as a source for art made in the present. Similarly, Amin puts the medium of metal to work in sculptures that
make a break from the pastthe artist updates and expands Islamic calligraphy, a practice considered to
be traditional. Yet, on the other hand, the manner in which he appropriates the tradition is a practice that is
indebted to postmodern philosophy. He does not reject historical Islamic art. Rather, he scavenges the past
and selects forms of Islamic calligraphy to create sculptures.
Amin takes centuries-old styles of writing, like the Naskhi script that is the more common approach in Arabic
text. It is composed of rounded, flowing letters, unlike the oldest form of Arabic script that is known as Kufic.
In the latter writing style, letters are more rectilinear and do not posses the lyrical movement of the Naskhi
script. Amin also appropriates this tenth-century script in his three-dimensional forms that he makes today.
And, in some ways, Kufic text seems more appropriate to building a sculptureits blocky tendency easily re-

sults in holistic shapes. Yet, neither of these writing styles was used in three dimensions until very recently.
Islamic calligraphy was relegated to manuscripts or as decoration on architecture or objects. Its use as an
object itself is a radical break from past practices. By updating the form that calligraphy can take while at the
same utilizing the styles from the past, Amin Gulgee steps into a postmodern mindset. He brings together
traditional and contemporary art.1
This kind of approach has become a critical mode of expression for artists in postcolonial nations. In trying
to come to terms with the rich histories of the culture to which they belong, while acknowledging the reality
of a globalized world that includes hybrid cultures and influences that cross the entire world, these artists
attempt to build bridges between the two. It is not always a smooth crossing. Indeed, as the world becomes
increasingly globalized, it seems that problems between peoples have risen rather than diminished because of increased interaction.
Today, Islam is viewed as a dangerous religion, especially because of the events of 9/11. This occasion
turned Islam into a global phenomenon, as historian Faisal Devji suggests: not simply as the faith of millions, but as a word that, very much like America, was now part of everyones vocabulary, demanding from
everyone an opinion about itself.2 It carries a stigma of violence, although Devji suggests that the focus
on it in the days after 9/11 offered a new, gentle image of Islam. He writes, [It] was only the threat of Islam
that made possible its recognition as a religion of peace.3 Even as there was an effort to project Islam as
a peaceful faithan endeavor that extended as far as the White Housean environment of fear developed
around Islam that caused outsiders to be highly suspicious of the religion and its adherents.
As an artist who lives and works in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Amin Gulgee, as noted above, tries to
come to terms with his religion and inherited cultures. From the beginning, he has included Islamic calligraphy in order to address his memories of home. In a new work like Towers 2, he makes references to the
religions questionable political face, while he also tries to emphasize its beauty and strength. Islams solid
foundation is expressed through the use of square-like Kufic letters, while the shimmering metal employed
in its construction is attractive to the eye. But by referencing 9/11 in the shape and title of this work, Amin
considers the apprehension surrounding Islam by using the very image stereotypically associated with its
violence. It is rendered into a cipher through the artists acceptance of the fixed definition of the religion.
Towers 2 raises a political dimension of Islam. However, many of his sculptures speak to more spiritual,
mystical concerns. In these works, another contradiction arises. In todays world, it seems that art and religion are necessarily at odds with each other. Conservative religious groups attempt to stop art exhibitions
and musical performances around Pakistan; while in the United States, fundamental Christians protest
against offensive paintings and films. Conventional thinking might reason that art and religion do not blend
together, especially when one considers artists as liberal or intellectual individuals. An eccentric, intelligent
individual like Amin Gulgee appears, at face level, to be unconcerned with religion, in particular with the
strict and confining rules that exist in Islam. However, his work does express Islamic beliefs. In some works,
he takes a line from the Quran and repeats it over and over again as a good Muslim might in the act of recit-

ing religious texts. Repetition is critical for understanding religion; it helps in achieving a trance-like, spiritual
state. Religious hymns, like qawwalis, revolve around a single phrase that is sung over and over again. One
line that Amin utilizes in his art is God taught humankind what it did not know, as he does in Spider I and II. In
Ocean IV, he writes another phrase eight times. It states, Which of the favors of God can one deny?
His is an enduring use of religious words in a manner that seeks to internalize their meaning. Perhaps this
makes his work more Islamic than much of the work that is studied under Islamic art history? Indeed, Islamic
art is often used in an indiscriminate manner to refer to art that is made by or for those who are Islamic, not art
that is religious in purpose.4 Amins work seems to be religious in both its outcome and process. Indeed, the
word of God is what makes up his objects.
Yet, although Amin incorporates Islamic words in his artworks, his inspiration does not appear to be the rules
and regulations of Islam. Much of the text is, in fact, unreadable. And, when he has addressed recollections
of home, he has included images of Buddha and Krishna. These are memories related to directly to his home
and his parents collection of antiquities, as well as to his expanded home in South Asia. So, instead of simply expressing the word of Allah, the works are perhaps an outcome of a process that the artist undergoes to
shape, mold, and eventually create his art. This artmaking process seems to be similar to the path that the
faithful follows in order to reach spiritual enlightenmentmeditating and reflecting on religious ideas in order to
reach a higher dimension. In his method, Amin does not make preliminary drawings for his sculptures. Instead,
he uses an intuitive approach that includes exploring and playing with his chosen material, as well as meditating on the shape that his work takes. He might begin a sculpture and then let it gestate in his storage room for
years, only to take it out again and sculpt it to the point when it is realised.5
Rather than Islam or any other conventional practice, the religion to which Amin seems to be a faithful adherent is art. Art as religion has been embraced by artists in the past, in particular early Modernists in Europe.
Vasily Kandinsky, Kasimir Malevich, and Piet Mondrian are three examples. Kandinsky, in fact, wrote a treatise
called, Concerning the Spiritual in Art, in which he presents the enlightened artist as a Prophet leading the
masses to a higher dimension. Meditating on abstract art would be the method to reach this superior realm.
Similarly, Malevich and Mondrian expounded on the supremacy of nonobjective art. The purity and universality
of abstract visual language, they told, would allow viewers to move beyond the materialistic world to a more
spiritual arena. In their ideas, art and, as such, artists had the distinct ability to help individuals to be enlightened beings.
Closer to home for Amin, his father made paintings incorporating Islamic calligraphy in an abstract, intuitive
style. Other Pakistani artists have expressed the words of God in order to allow viewers to contemplate Islamic
spirituality. The use of Islamic calligraphy is considered dubious by some because it was a safe path to follow
in the face of an oppressive dictatorship that existed in Pakistan in the 1980s; artists adopted conventional
notions of art and beauty and did not challenge governmental authority in their art. It was an uneasy time when
citizens felt under surveillance. Artists who spoke out about the government or dealt with political themes
called attention to themselves. Today, some artists still choose to create calligraphic art in order to be more

socially acceptable in the Islamic nation.

Amin Gulgee does not make calligraphic art to avoid controversy in his native land. Instead, it is a way for him
to explore his cultural heritage and bring together the local and global. His process and resulting objects, as
such, are meditations on the path to enlightenmentfor him and, perhaps, others who appreciate his work.
This path is not straight and narrow; it is laced with contradictions and inconsistencies that mark life and art
together. Amin expresses his complex and grand vision in ways that draw forth these paradoxes, such as
modern versus postmodern art debates and the tensions between art and religion. On surface level, it might
not seem evident that the artist is attempting to handle such complicated matters. However, once one knows
about his approach to making art, it becomes clear that he treats art on the level of religion in order to continually evolve and strive to understand what he creates. In the process, he offers meditative works for viewers that ask them to slow down and contemplate art and life and the interconnections between the two.

Amin Gulgee website homepage, http://aminigulgee.com/, retrieved 23 January 2008.

Faisal Devji, Landscapes of the Jihad: militancy, morality, modernity (London: Hurst & Co., 2005), xi.
Ibid, xii.
4
This is discussed in depth in Sheila S. Blair and Jonathan M. Bloom, The Mirage of Islamic Art: Reflections on the Study of an Unwieldy Field,
The Art Bulletin, Vol. 85, No. 1 (March 2003), 152-84.
5
Amin Gulgee, Drawing the Line, in Drawing the Line: Sculptures by Amin Gulgee (Kuala Lumpur: Galeri Petronas, 2008), 9.
1
2
3

Atteqa Ali is an art historian, writer, and independent curator. She is currently organizing, The Emperors New Clothes: Dress, Politics, and
Identity in Contemporary Pakistani Art. Her previous exhibitions include Homecoming and Outside the Cube at the National Arts Gallery
in Islamabad and Playing with a Loaded Gun: Contemporary Art in Pakistan at Apex Art in New York. She has written for several exhibition
catalogues, museum websites, and art journals including the Metropolitan Museum of Arts Timeline of Art History, Asia Societys One Way or
Another, Orientations magazine, and Art Asia Pacific. Atteqa is currently Assistant Professor of Art History at the National College of Arts in
Lahore. She received her doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin in the Art and Art History Department in December 2008.

Spider II
152.4 x 109.22 x 86.36 cm
Copper

Amin Gulgee

Amin Gulgee

47: Charbagh
132.08 x 124.46 x 30.48 cm
Copper and Cast Brass

Amin Gulgee

Cosmic Chapatti 89
58.42 x 40.64 x 27.94 cm
Copper

Amin Gulgee

Dwelling with an Inner Courtyard

71.12 x 71.12 x 71.12 cm
Copper

Amin Gulgee

Embedded Line IV
76.2 x 53.34 x 68.58 cm
Copper

Amin Gulgee

Folded Chapatti
40.64 x 78.74 x 78.74 cm
Copper

Amin Gulgee

Fragment VII : The Reach

114.3 x 60.96 x 22.86 cm
Copper

Amin Gulgee

Amin Gulgee

Ocean IV
111.76 x 111.76 x 55.88 cm
Copper

Amin Gulgee

Towers II
20.32 x 12.7 x 109.22 cm
Copper

Special Thanks to

ATTEQA ALI..............................................Essay

SHAMYL KHUHRO.........................Photography

The Gate Village Bldg. 3, Level 2, Dubai International Financial Centre

Tel. +971 4 323 0820 | Fax: +971 4 323 0821
info@artspace-dubai.com | www.artspace-dubai.com