ARTICULATING THE BOUNDARY

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Boundaries are remarkable entities that can be as vaporous as clouds or as monumental as a seismic rift. Fuzzy or fixed, boundaries are essential in defining our perception of time, space, and non-tangible reality. They facilitate classification and objectification. For instance, we can speak of boundaries between things that are physical such as an apple on a table, or things that are conceptual such as the distinction between poetry and prose. In this ontological manner, boundaries become markers of identity or tools of epistemological investigation. The idea of a boundary is so foundational to our intelligence that one dares say it makes thinking possible. A fuzzy boundary creates its own conundrum such as the diminishing boundary between human versus Artificial Intelligence. 

It is often the abstract mystery of boundaries that ignites our thoughts - thoughts that generate a cosmos of infinite complexity. We use boundaries to define meaning out of the chaos of multiplicity. Ghalib, in exquisite metaphysical mode, expresses a boundary as a thread that binds and organizes the universe of scattered forms:

Nazar mein hai humari jaadah-e-rah-fana Ghalib

Ke yeh Sheerazah hai aalam ke ajza-e-pareshaan ka

In our gaze is the path of the road of oblivion, Ghalib

For this is the thread that binds the scatter of the universe

Artists negotiate the mystery of the boundary between intuitive thinking versus analytical thinking. They construe boundaries with an intuitive understanding of line and form to articulate their observations of reality. In the show Exploring Boundaries, we see diverse expressions of how the boundary can be imagined. The hard precision of Huma Mulji’s grille patterns contrasts with Aqueel Solangi’s interpretation of time through the random patterns created by peeling paint. Nature, for Jamil Baloch, becomes a symbol for the human condition, while Sahar Ansari sees Nature’s fecundity as a contrast to the contrived veneer of human civilization. Hadia Moiz literally reconfigures the physical boundaries of text to create new decolonialized narratives, while Masuma Halai Khawaja interrogates the fabric of history to challenge received narratives. 

In the work of these artists, we see how the boundary is asserted, challenged, demolished, and recreated to reflect new truths and understanding. Art is not unlike a boundary as its iterations of form, color, and concept are limitless. A group show like Exploring Boundaries gives us a nuanced experience of how art becomes a means of knowing, of interpreting, and even of escaping the essential notion of the boundary.

Nusrat Khawaja

Nusrat Khawaja is an independent researcher and landscaper. She writes on art and literature.