The art of expression

Human is a simple sculpture of a man covered in cracks, the fissures running over the skin symbolising pain leaving the body. The work is by Ali Reza, a 23-year-old Fine Art student at the National College of Art (NCA) in Lahore, and is indicative of the growing influence that the terrorism experienced by Pakistan is having on the art it produces. Reza says: "When I listened to the news that the Taliban was systematically destroying art and culture in Afghanistan, I was in great pain. I then made Human, showing the hurt held inside of a person. I always condemn terrorist activities through my work."

Vibrant but little-known, contemporary Pakistani art is flourishing, and, increasingly, themes of terror have added to the complex mix influencing artists. A film that surfaced depicting the Taliban in the Swat Valley, publicly flogging a young woman while she screamed for mercy, propelled Reza's fellow NCA painter Nasir Jaan to create Supernatural, a self-portrait that depicts the artist surrounded by the distorted, hate-filled expressions of others and the naked body of a woman.

It shows, Jaan says, that "despite these evils, the Pakistani nation is supernatural - it faces everything and still survives". Galleries in Pakistan's art-rich city are responding well to this evolving climate of artistic comment, carrying graduate and final-year works that define the blossoming contemporary art movement in the country. Tongue in Cheek, an exhibition by the painter Shoaib Mahmood, proved a hit with critics and art enthusiasts when it ran in Lahore's Drawing Room gallery, carrying visually stunning work which criticised the "death" of Urdu in Pakistan at the hands of increasingly common English vocabulary.

The visual artist Zahra Syed spent last year teaching at Lahore's Beaconhouse National University (BNU) and highlights the growing trend among the country's contemporary young artists to comment on negative aspects of Pakistani life. "Of course Pakistani art engages with the terrorism; for one, because it's increasingly the tag by which Pakistanis are perceived by the rest of the world, and also because it is becoming increasingly real," Syed says.

Reports of suicide bombings, kidnappings, hijacks and shootings that pepper news coverage of the country may contribute to the growth of an unfair stereotype, but the impact of attacks by terrorist networks on the country is hard to ignore. Syed adds: "For me it really set in with the Gaddafi Stadium cricket attacks in March. From the Marriot explosions in Islamabad to the Gaddafi attacks, terrorism has invaded the cities we grew up in and so dearly love."

The engagement with terrorism in art is not always blatant. Many artists pivot away from overt references, choosing to comment on themes of paranoia, fear, disorder, tyranny, poverty, inequality, repression and abuse. Karren Jamir's artwork has examined the use of the veil in society, and decrees passed under Taliban rule in Afghanistan in the 1990s. One sculpture by the 22-year-old third-year student, titled Suffocation, depicts the partially veiled faces of a number of women; a comment on female oppression, and what Jamir calls "the hidden social problems women face that mean they can't leave their homes without fear".

Some artists are more direct. The walls of Cooco's Den & Café, the painter Iqbal Hussain's restaurant in the heart of Lahore's Heera Mandi red-light area, are emblazoned with the artist's bold portraits of the district's prostitutes; honest depictions from inside the bedrooms of Lahore's working girls. Pakistan's artistic comment may be adapting to the current climate, but artists are increasingly mixing contemporary themes with traditional mediums.

The distinctly Pakistani contemporary miniature paintings many artists are creating borrow heavily from illuminated Mughal manuscript tradition and many more are developing already well-established genres through their work. Reza comments on the impact of acts of terror through sculpture, saying: "Sculpture has long been one of the most popular forms of fine art, a primary means of artistic expression."

With the changing face of Pakistan's artistic messages, though, also come emerging contemporary genres: mixed media, visual art and film, web posts, interactive and graphic design techniques are flourishing in Lahore's most prestigious art colleges. The graphic design graduate Sherbano Syed, 24, used her final-year BNU thesis to depict cricketers batting away hand-grenades, young men with bullets between their teeth and veiled women in chains.

The slogans on her black, white and red posters read, "Where Sport can Explode", "Where Men are Terrorists" and "Where Women are Oppressed". Her work was as much about commenting on social ills as questioning the blanket perception of Pakistan as a dangerous and failing state, a view that is often propagated by foreign media. She says: "I've often wondered on my travels abroad why people are surprised by my nationality. The problem was that I didn't reflect how they perceived a Pakistani. The image their media had burnt in their minds was of a land where men were violent and women were covered head to toe and confined in the four walls of their homes. This initiated my thesis - the whole idea of how a going perception could not always be 100 per cent accurate."

Middle-class student backgrounds and the almost avant-garde nature of much of Pakistan's contemporary art keep its creators from forming the backbone of a popular "anti-terror" protest movement. Exhibitions are confined to upmarket galleries and art-centric internet forums. In a country where survival can be a struggle, the numbers of students studying to become doctors, lawyers and engineers far outstrips the numbers producing art.

Syed explains: "There is a breed of young people who think drawing pictures and writing poetry is haram. There are those unaware that they can make art commenting on their own experiences. I don't know if the people who think art is a viable medium for social and political comment have any significance in numbers." Interest in contemporary Pakistani art is also growing abroad. Last week, New York's Asia Society Museum exhibition Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan opened. Helmed by Salima Hashmi, one of Pakistan's most influential and well-respected writers and curators, the exhibition's title evokes the idea of delaying judgment based on preconceptions of Pakistan, while examining the socio-political climate the country's artists live and work in.

Some elements of popular protest are also emerging in Pakistan, growing from a largely niche movement. Back in Lahore, the singer Shahvaar Ali Khan says: "Our youth have the ability to re-imagine the world. It is critical that we talk to them in their language, a language that resonates in their hearts and minds."

TICKETS

For tickets for the two-day Maharlika Pilipinas Basketball League (MPBL) event, entitled Dubai Invasion 2019, on September 27 and 28 go to www.meraticket.com.

Mia Man’s tips for fermentation

- Start with a simple recipe such as yogurt or sauerkraut

- Keep your hands and kitchen tools clean. Sanitize knives, cutting boards, tongs and storage jars with boiling water before you start.

- Mold is bad: the colour pink is a sign of mold. If yogurt turns pink as it ferments, you need to discard it and start again. For kraut, if you remove the top leaves and see any sign of mold, you should discard the batch.

- Always use clean, closed, airtight lids and containers such as mason jars when fermenting yogurt and kraut. Keep the lid closed to prevent insects and contaminants from getting in.

The White Lotus: Season three

Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico

- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000

- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950

Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

While you're here

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Mina Al-Oraibi: Women should be at the heart of the global post-pandemic recovery

Tickets

Tickets start at Dh100 for adults, while children can enter free on the opening day. For more information, visit www.mubadalawtc.com.

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Sun jukebox

Rufus Thomas, Bear Cat (The Answer to Hound Dog) (1953)

This rip-off of Leiber/Stoller’s early rock stomper brought a lawsuit against Phillips and necessitated Presley’s premature sale to RCA.

Elvis Presley, Mystery Train (1955)

The B-side of Presley’s final single for Sun bops with a drummer-less groove.

Johnny Cash and the Tennessee Two, Folsom Prison Blues (1955)

Originally recorded for Sun, Cash’s signature tune was performed for inmates of the titular prison 13 years later.

Carl Perkins, Blue Suede Shoes (1956)

Within a month of Sun’s February release Elvis had his version out on RCA.

Roy Orbison, Ooby Dooby (1956)

An essential piece of irreverent juvenilia from Orbison.

Jerry Lee Lewis, Great Balls of Fire (1957)

Lee’s trademark anthem is one of the era’s best-remembered – and best-selling – songs.

The specs

AT4 Ultimate, as tested

Engine: 6.2-litre V8

Power: 420hp

Torque: 623Nm

Transmission: 10-speed automatic

Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)

On sale: Now

Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.