Ayaz Jokhio
Ayaz Jokhio | Pakistan b.1978 | Working designs for a thousand doors and windows too… 2009 | Site-specific work for APT6 | Image courtesy: The artist
b.1978 Mehrabpur, Sindh, Pakistan
Lives and works in Lahore, Pakistan
Ayaz Jokhio’s meticulously produced paintings, drawings and installations use ironic humour and the relation between images and text as a means to question the definition of art and its role in the contemporary world. Beginning his career as a poet and cartoonist, Jokhio has also worked in film and documentary. His works often involve a form of conceptual play with art history and the conventions of painting, such as inverting the hierarchy between art works and their labels on the gallery wall, or making large paintings of the backs of snapshot photographs. For APT6, Jokhio is presenting a major architectural project, entitled a thousand doors and windows too... 2009, located in the Queensland Art Gallery’s iconic Watermall. This work takes the form of an octagonal building, with each wall containing a mihrab, or niche, which in a mosque points toward Mecca and indicates the direction for worshippers to face during prayer. Inspired by a verse by Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif of Bhittai, describing the omnipresence of God, the artist draws on the simplicity and beauty of Islamic design to create a space for contemplation.
Exhibitions (solo): Grey Noise Gallery, Lahore, Pakistan, 2008 and 2009. Exhibitions (group): ‘Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan’, Asia Society, New York, United States, 2009; ‘Drawn From Line’, Green Cardamom, London, United Kingdom, 2008; National Art Gallery, Islamabad, Pakistan, 2007.
Installation photography
APT6 | Ayaz Jokhio | a thousand doors and windows too… 2009
