MJ_New Moon web.jpg

Mahbub Jokhio

New Moon
Found paper collage on board, Edition 1/3
Diameter: 48 inches
2014
Collection of Ayesha Danish

Working with the found imagery and materials, be it a video, animation, images, or a literary piece; my image making practice deals with the iconic and popular imagery selected from a variety of sources and reference points. Through these I play with the idea of perception; for familiarity plays a vital role in perception. Using references from print and digital media of popular industry through which we are informed of a collective history, experience, perception and thinking, my work is a critical take on how information gets distorted, dis-narrated, deformed or misinterpreted on the way to us.
My practice isn’t restricted to any single medium, rather dependent on the concept, it includes variety of subject matters ranging from history to religion, from love to violence, and from print to video to painting. Thus, it questions the viewer’s existing perception by re-contextualizing and re-imaging the existing popular objective visuals and inverting the contents through the subjective vision.
New moon is the inverted image of Earth constructed by circular dots cut from a popular novel of the same name by Stephenie Meyer on the themes of abundance, grief and sacrifice. The Moon being a poetic metaphor throughout literature and poetry of all times, symbolizes a place for happiness, where one can not bear tears due to gravity. The piece at far forms an image which looks like moon, but as one gets closer, the image started to dissolve into a abstracted grid of dots.
Born in Mahrabpur, Pakistan, Mahbub Jokhio graduated with Distinction from Beaconhouse National University in Visual Arts as UMISSA scholar in 2014. Having a literary family background, his art making practice is often informed by literary themes. Jokhio is a poet and short story writer, but divides most of his creative practice in visual art making.

Photo Credits | Mahbub Jokhio