LAST CHANCE The importance of staying quiet: Fahd Burki II.a

In 2014, an exhibition was held in Hong Kong under the title The importance of staying quiet; conceived by Saira Ansari and Umer Butt, it was an attempt to find a minimal vocabulary within Pakistani art. A decade later, The importance of staying quiet returns as a year-long dialogic exchange between Butt and Ansari as a series of presentations shaped through discursive encounters. This time, the programme will examine the development of practices that have deliberately engaged minimal or abstract strategies.

Fahd Burki II.a, the fourth exhibition in The importance of staying quiet, extended the dialogue initiated through painting in Fahd Burki I via works on paper, canvas, and wood, pulling through the two-dimensional language in shift towards 3D. The works on display here turn toward contour, elevation, and depressions, explored through both actual and implied relief; “from the surface outward, the edges crawl, fold around the frame, and consolidate into a single wooden form that anchors the centre of the presentation. The remaining tonally minimal, monochromatic works hold the space in a light yet concentrated tension …”

The final presentation in the series, Fahd Burki II.b will move fully into the three-dimensional; it opens on 16 May.