A very interesting article on Pakistan's stunning new national art gallery. (via 3QD) I would certainly love to visit if I could.
[ Pakistani architect Naeem ]Pasha led me on a tour of the spectacular new National Art Gallery in Islamabad, Pakistan's capital. It’s the first national gallery in the country and Pasha's crowning achievement.
There is no barrier between architecture, poetry or painting, he explained. "They understand each other – we might not know their language of understanding, but all these expressions understand each other," he said.
I had never thought of a building in quite that way before.
Contemporary and edgy
The austere, red-brick "fortress-like" exterior grabs one immediately. But the real attention-getter is just off to the side of the main entrance – a "sentry" of six 10-feet tall burqa clad women made out of black fiberglass.
The message from the sculptor, Jamil Baloch, seemed to be that though westerners may view the burqa as a form of incarceration for women, in eastern cultures – regardless of how they dress – women are strong and play a larger-than-life role in society.
And that role is certainly evident at the National Art Gallery. Sixty percent of the artists on exhibit are women.
"Pakistan's art world is overwhelmingly female-dominated," said Pasha.
"Parents didn't send their sons to art school; they sent their daughters," he told me. "Art school was considered a sissy thing to do."
But the art inside is far from sissy. It is contemporary and edgy and defies Pakistan's image as a deeply conservative country of religious extremists.
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