Mahbub Shah lives and works in Lahore, Pakistan.
For LB01, the artist presented a poetic multi-channel video installation that tracked the local transportation infrastructure and urban networks as they begin assuming an almost predatory position through the occupation of agrarian lands. Roads, or motor-ways, are commonly considered to be an epitome of connectivity, of mobility, of development. They are also used as a metaphor of progress – of moving forward – in a postcolonial country like ours. Least is said about the deleterious and detrimental effects of these modern day monuments. Barely are they seen as the conduits of intensifying/maximizing the appropriation and exploitation of nature, natural resources and labor. Hardly are they recognized as the tentacles of urban metropolises sucking on the blood of the countryside, the interiors, and, in return, transfusing back the refuse of its excessive commercial merchandise and its throw-away consumerist culture.
Shah is Professor of Fine Art at Beaconhouse National University, Lahore. Solo exhibitions of the artist’s work were held at the Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi (2010), Grey Noise, Lahore (2009), Green Cardamom, Hong Kong (2008), Arts Council of Pakistan, Karachi (2007), National College of Arts, Lahore (2005), and at the National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai (2005).