Imagine an everyday space such as a home or a garden transformed into an art intervention that leaves a strong impact, open to interpretations. Transforming the mundane into the profound, two spaces in Lahore turn into a canvas for Imran Qureshi, the Pakistani-born artist and recipient of Pakistan’s third-highest civilian award, the Sitara-e-Imtiaz. The Barracks Gallery, a recently inaugurated underground space, originally occupied by the Pakistan Civil Defence Department in the 1940s in the historic Nasir Bagh Gardens and COMO Museum of Art, a former residential structure built in 1980 that now houses Pakistan’s first private art museum, are transformed into spaces open to more contemporary discourses.

“These exhibitions were not planned [to run simultaneously in Lahore],” Qureshi tells STIR. The shows renegotiate the very quotidian idea of Home and The Garden, which are the exhibition titles at COMO Museum and Barracks Gallery respectively. Despite the contrasting architectural character of these two spaces—the intimateness and warmness of a home and the expansive setting of a public garden—both address pressing socio-political global issues such as terrorism, war, genocide and political instability.

“Nasir Bagh, dating back to pre-partition Lahore, has been witness to the nation’s most consequential socio-political events that have left an indelible mark on Pakistan’s history,” states the press release. Qureshi says, “It has been restored and renovated by Imran Ahmad, with minimal but very precise contemporary intervention into this historic space.” The barracks still hold the raw essence of a space that was once home to more than 100,000 Afghan refugees in 1992, post the fallout of the Soviet-backed communist government. “I wanted to leverage an experience on the unanticipated positioning of the underground barracks. My very first encounter with this space was when it was in a dilapidated condition with water seeping in from above. Introducing the audiences [as soon as they enter] with very similar sensibilities, I wanted them to immediately be immersed in overpowering imagery.”

What connects the two exhibitions, Home and The Garden, is Qureshi’s strong and stark commentary on violence, war, home-grown terror and genocide. The experience is very similar as one enters either space, momentarily perplexed by the aggressive splashes of paint that cover the floors. These act as a metaphorical representation of violent bloodshed with drips, drops, streaks and stains. Some of the stains are completely dried, resembling the aftermath of a war. Splatter on the wall looks like a headshot in a massacre, like the one at the Jallianwala Bagh, Amritsar in 1919, while some strokes seem fresh and still damp. Qureshi explains, “Lots of imagery in these two shows was also inspired by incidents in the Middle East especially in Gaza. It may hold an alternative implication as well [that narrows down to more Pakistan-specific issues].” The COMO Museum, for example, also drew attention to the increased domestic violence, sexual abuse, child brutality and brainwashing jihadis in the name of religion in Pakistan.

A room at the Barracks is converted into an archival presentation of the history as well as evoking the building’s former utilitarian purpose connected with defence and war. In the words of Qureshi, “I have been inspired by history, now packed in a box, like one in a museum filled with artefacts. I have presented a case on a pedestal that encapsulates a three-dimensional printing of a missile covered in fragile gold leafing.” In the COMO museum as well, four tiny sculptural renditions of these missiles covered in gold leafing silently stand in a subdued corner. The use of gold leafing as a medium indirectly implies the hefty capital consumed and funding raised to produce these weapons to boost war. Thus, the fragility of the medium draws attention to the interrelatedness of the increase in war and capitalism.

The wall and floor murals, depicted as violent splitter-splatter of blood stains are interspersed with minutely rendered paintings of flowers and foliage using a fine squirrel hair brush. “After all, there is still hope for survival," says Qureshi. After the violence of his mark-making and what may look like the aftermath of a war that elicits intense emotions, Qureshi concludes both exhibitions on a rather peaceful note. At COMO Museum, the viewer finds themself under the infinite sky as one is invited to walk barefoot on the rooftop of the two-storeyed building. The area is completely covered in charpoys or traditional mats woven using nylon ropes in the installation titled ...And Then Came Spring, 2023. The indigenous charpoys were originally used as outdoor furniture to relax and rejuvenate, perhaps with a cup of tea. In retrospect, this interactive installation counters the previous visions of blood-smeared walls, supplying an experience of tranquillity. Similarly, while making one’s way out of the underground Barracks, one is engulfed by the beauties of Nasir Bagh—the ripples of the lake, the chirping birds, the verdant greenery and the flowers in full bloom. In retrospect, this metaphorically represents the landscape that might have once been bathed in blood, now transformed into one full of life and nature.

Thematically, both exhibitions blend local specificities, such as architectural character and history, with pressing global as well as local political current affairs. At the heart of Qureshi’s practice, he explores profound ideas such as life and death, beauty and the unalluring, violence and peace. He pushes the envelope of contemporary art urging each one to introspect and emote in response to the global instability that hits the news headlines every single day.