Everything is Embedded in History

Exhibition Catalogue

A singular feature of our lives has become collecting and the ensuing dissemination of personal narratives in an already pluralistic, diverse world. New media and personal outpost satellite services seem to have overridden the exclusive and insular rights of established media groups and publications. Media hierarchies seem to be fading away rapidly. Copyrights, ownership, authorship of information are open to discussion. The ever-elusive question of the reliability and validity of empirical truth has been outstretched beyond the realm of the present, into inquiring past history and subsequently the future concerns. The collection and documentation of information, data, images, text and consequently having multiple channels of broadcasting and display have become an individual calling. This information, either collected under the umbrella of personal histories, archaeological findings, modern day forensics or socio-political journalism are now revisited with the awareness of the subjectivity involved in the process. Now anyone with a mobile device possesses the ability to record, process and disseminate information, in prolific amounts, to the rest of the world. The meaning of words like “media” and “broadcasting” have expanded well beyond their original precincts, and point to a vast virtual horizon where information is eternal yet ephemeral. In light of media’s evolved role, this exhibition seeks to engage and encourage artists to examine the recording of day-to-day events (be it newsworthy or mundane). An inherent shift from the isolated and formal culture of the fine arts has driven artists to revisit familiar realms of documentation and to subsequently push the lens of viewership. Thus ‘Everything is Embedded in History’ postulates a multi-disciplinary investigation of the recording and chronicling of history itself.

PROCESS

In accordance with the theme of the exhibition, the catalogue was not only meant to record data i.e. the information of the artists’ works, but also meant to function as a diary or a scrapbook, where the owners of the catalogue could further personalize it. pasting, scanning then re-printing of the images, so as to give an impression of truly ’embedding’ the history of the process and information within it’s pages. The pages were left with ample ‘blank space’, so to speak, with certain pages comprising of the impression of tea stains or newspaper cutting. The intention was to create a conversation between the user and the catalogue. New documentation on the process involved printing, cutting, pre-documented and utilized space.

Year of Publication: 2018

Partner: Lahore Literary Festival – LLF

LLF explores the dialogue and interface between literature and the arts that shape our cultural, social, economic, and political frameworks. The Festival aims to bring together, discuss, and celebrate the diverse and pluralistic literary traditions of Lahore—a city of the arts, activism, and big ideas. LLF features discussions on a variety of subjects—fiction and nonfiction writing, music, painting, filmmaking, architecture, politics—to reclaim and employ Lahore’s rich and varied literary traditions.

 

Publisher

Le’ Topical

Established in July 1991 in Lahore, Le’ Topical was initially set up as a design house by Mr. Naseer Ahmed Baluch, the current CEO of Le’ Topical. With firm commitment and passion to set out distinctive from rest of the printing houses, over the span of two decades, Le’ Topical has set out a benchmark in terms of quality and consistency and provides its clients with pre-press, press and post-press facilities under one roof.