2017
Behind the Eyes (2)
Open Studio, Toronto.
Monoprints, archival photo boxes, metal stands.
Printmaking mentor: Pamela Dodds
For his current project at Open Studio, Farooq asks us to consider the place of internal images at a time when we are overcome by external ones. Following curator Massimiliano Gioni’s claim that “pictures have always been swarming behind our eyelids” Farooq’s work develops a series of artifacts excavated from a daily meditation practice and materialized through monotype printing. His process largely involves reenacting collaborative strategies employed by the Theosophy movement, specifically by Annie Besant and Charles Leadbeater who described their clairvoyant observations to painters in order to understand the visual forms of their thoughts. Their images were subsequently published in their book Thought-Forms in 1905.
Captivated by a similar urgency to materialize the iridescence and vibrancy of internal pictures, Farooq continues the tradition of surrendering to an internal visual world in order to understand shape of the imagination, through a collaboration with master printer Pamela Dodds. The work is made by Farooq at a time when we are metabolizing more digital images than any other period in history, and also within the framework of decolonizing strategies within the museum. Entering internal visions and the imagination into the ‘official record’ can be proposed as a process of democratizing collecting.
An essay by Beth Stuart accompanied the exhibition. Please click here to download the brochure.
№ 6/25
№ 1/1
Next project: → Behind the Eyes (1)
Previous project: ← Pouf, Sausage, Weight, Arc
