The Dancing Sofa

Ruins had been valued since time immemorial for their beauty as they share a transformative legacy. They trigger catharsis as they are a testament to the collective history and experience of human life. Weaving the objects that our life revolves around and reconstructing them is a doorway to understand human life and matter in its evolution. Things, which are used at most with human touch, are catalyst to inquire the time that involves in the metamorphoses. The works represent a void between the past and the present, between the living and the dead, a life of their own in-between the extremes. It won’t be wrong to say that life in a spectrum is a life spent in a museum of commodities. These objects share tales in a sense that it unfolds a distinct time period, certain environment, peculiar people and their discreteneeds, emotions and life style. With the handling of these objects throughout the day we share infinite specks of dried skin with the clothes that we wear, furniture that we use or the bed that we sleep on. This intimate process keeps on going without a hint of a glitch. This evolutionary process in a microcosmic level provokes me to capacitate the universal cyclic endeavors of creation, preservation and destruction in my practice. With reconstructing these pieces it unfolds to me that not just human beings everything that revolves around us under the magnificent sphere goes through change.  My practice accumulates the evolutionary transmutations that coexist in the living and the non-living on the elemental level. The works produced are reminiscent of a safe place where a viewer can enjoy and indulge with what they have to offer, as symbols and objects have universal as well as a personal relevance.

Romessa Khan is a Visual Artist from Lahore based Pashtun family. She graduated in Fine Arts with a major in printmaking from National College of Arts followed by Master's in Visual Arts degree, 2014. During her Master program, Khan received an artist residential grant from Rockefellers Brothers fund by New York Foundation of Arts in New York with an after exhibition in Chelsea. After finishing her residency she came back to finish her degree. On the completion of her Master's degree, she continued to join the National College of Arts as a visiting faculty. In 2015 she was invited by the Indian government with four other artist fellows to collaborate with Indian artists for an exhibition at the Indian National Council of Arts, Delhi. She just delivered a solo presentation at Karachi this year and did a performing art at Karachi art biennale. Moreover, she has been successfully exhibiting at different national and international platforms including Canada, London, Dubai, Singapore and wishes to broaden her audience in years to come. She touches upon a convoluted issue about evolution and devolution about human life. She chooses objects from the household, things that stay intact with the collective history and experience of mankind. Detailed analytical drawings reveal that the artist wishes to simplify the complexities of existence, and yet both (complexity and simplicity) appear to be mutually reinforcing. She uses a Rapido drafting pen as her drawing tool and currently practices in Lahore