Science Philosophy Religion (IV)
Archival inkjet print on photo-matt paper
30×48 inches
2012
Edition of 5 + 2 AP, Details on Request
Globalization is the new religion and its images are its scriptures.
In place of gods, this world has multiplicities of ungainly systems of businesses, governments, power entities, technology and communications. Reality is subdued in the conception of this work and a visual assembly dictates the time, space, events. There is an attempt to hold abstraction and representation within the same surface, narrating the existentialist ideas of fullness and emptiness of life. The series of work, Science Philosophy Religion transforms the real-looking into fictional constructed realism. The abstract identity of this work transforms into representational one with varying viewing distances. The plane window is a metaphor for global view, the window to globalization, a subtle metaphor for immensely connected world. The three divisions of sea, clouds are reflective of science, philosophy, religion. All three are inseparable from each other in today’s globalized world where technology has become a religion, gadgets are rituals and religion is used as a strategic scientific device.
Sajjad Ahmed is a visual artist living and working in Pakistan. Ahmed has been a participant of several exhibitions in Pakistan and internationally. His work addresses a diverse scope of concerns around art, representation, abstraction, semiotics, region, religion and globalization, manifested through assemblages of found media and executed in an array of mediums; prints, installations and time-based media. His artwork has been taught at City University of New York in 2009-10 as part of coursework. He is a finalist for the prestigious Sovereign Asia Art Prize 2009, through nomination of his artwork A Capitalist Hit. In 2011, his works, researched by ‘oculus’ paintings from Renaissance, were inducted as a permanent installation at the Slought Foundation, Philadelphia. Ahmed’s works are in various art collections in Asia, Europe, Middle-East and North America. Ahmed is an awardee and alumni of South Asia Foundation.