Peeling layers and subtexts – a Canadian-Pakistani artist’s perspective

ISLAMABAD: At first glance, the work of art in front of me seems to only bear the text from Ayat 32.5 from Surah Maida, which declares a killer of one soul the slayer of mankind. A deeper look and one can see that the artist has a layer of sub-text underneath that briefly touches on the beliefs of a suicide bomber: the act of violence he’s about to commit will guarantee him a ticket to heaven.
The next piece by the Canadian-Pakistani artist, Amin Rehman, has the two texts switching positions, and then this becomes a play in many other artworks – each recurring juxtaposition laying bare the tension in the understanding of religion and terrorism.
Indeed, Rehman’s series titled “WhiteWash: Art in the Age of Neo-Colonialism” – on exhibit at Rohtas Gallery till October 21 – provides a unique perspective on religion, terrorism and imperialism.

The works have one common visual element: snippets from documents and news commenting on the on-going wars and terrorism in lingo that is an integral part of the daily rhetoric. The texts are all written in Roman English and super-imposed on each other – in some works this has been done in such a manner that from afar the Roman letters give the illusion of calligraphy in Arabic.
For each artwork, the selected texts are contradictory but in some the foreground and background texts remain visibly separate while in others the two overlap and merge to give birth to a third language.
For instance, in one artwork, Faiz Ahmad Faiz’s poetry decorates the foreground: “This was the blood of the dweller of the earth, earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust”, hinting at the surrender to imperialism.
In another smaller piece, there is the phrase “lost soul”, perfectly capturing the aimless wandering spirit of our nation.