Lahore - Internationally acclaimed artist and recipient of the Sitara-e-Imtiaz, Imran Qureshi, has unveiled a series of four captivating exhibitions, titled Water Bodies, as part of the Lahore Biennale 2024. These exhibitions are showcased at three key stations of the Lahore Orange Line Metro Train, including the historic Shalimar Garden, offering the public a unique and accessible encounter with contemporary art.
The Lahore Biennale has cemented its reputation as a vital platform for contemporary art in the region, featuring an impressive range of artistic expressions from around the world. This year’s theme, Of Mountains and Seas, curated by John Tain, explores the intersection of ecology, sustainability, and artistic innovation, reflecting on the need to envision alternative futures.
Imran Qureshi’s contribution, Water Bodies, consists of four intricately conceived works inspired by the proliferation of blue PVC water tanks that now define Lahore’s skyline, especially from an aerial perspective. These tanks, emblematic of the city’s rapid urbanization, serve as both the focal point and the metaphor for the ecological concerns Qureshi addresses. Through these pieces, he draws attention to the harmful impact of storing water in plastic tanks, emphasizing that the practice poses risks to both health and the environment.
Qureshi’s signature use of color is prominent in these works, with blue symbolizing the omnipresent tanks and orange representing rust and the toxicity creeping into the city’s ecosystem due to plastic pollution. Orange also subtly references the Orange Line, where much of the artwork is installed, marking a historic moment as this becomes the first public art to be permanently displayed at the Lahore Metro.
At the GPO Train Station, visitors are greeted by a vast, seamless wall adorned with a striking blue-and-orange pattern. This collage, meticulously crafted from photographs of painted water tanks, shifts in tone as viewers move through the space—growing bluer near the exits to symbolize the growing reliance on plastic tanks, and intensifying in orange near the entrance leading towards the train, echoing the presence of the Orange Line system. Qureshi’s artistic approach draws aesthetic inspiration from Multan’s traditional pottery styles, blending six distinct patterns into a cohesive, immersive experience. At the Shalimar Train Station, an 85-foot-wide translucent mural lines a curtained wall. This intricate piece, featuring circular window-like paintings of water tanks, allows natural light to filter through, creating an ever-changing visual effect depending on the time of day. Visitors can also view Qureshi’s third art piece, a fully blue painted rooftop installation of actual blue water tanks camouflaged to blend with the surrounding neighborhood—a reflection of the omnipresence of these structures across the city’s rooftops.
Finally, in the historic Shalimar Gardens, Qureshi has constructed a life-sized water tank from discarded Multani crockery fragments, adorned with floral motifs inspired by decorative vases. This piece, which he developed after extensive research in Multan, merges art and nature, offering a striking contrast to the adjacent landscape of neighboring rooftops containing these blue tanks that are visible from within the Shalimar Gardens, while evoking a sense of beauty in an otherwise utilitarian object.
Water Bodies is now open for public viewing and will remain on display as a permanent fixture at these locations.