CASTING A SPELL

Nauman Khalid dwells on Ali Kazim's Suspended in Time at the Ashmolean.

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Ali Kazim. The Conference of Birds. Watercolour pigments on paper. 5 parts. 198 cms x 114 cms each. 2019.

Ali Kazim's Suspended in Time opens in tandem with the 75th anniversary of the creation of Pakistan. It must be pointed out at the outset that Kazim has the distinction of being the first South Asian artist-in-residence at the University of Oxford and the first living artist from the region to have a solo show at the Ashmolean Museum. The show continues from the 7th of February to the 26th of June.

From small town circus and cinema-hoarding painter to feted artist, Kazim's journey is the stuff dreams are made of, you could be forgiven for musing aloud but, that, sometimes, can be what transpires if your stars align as perfectly as they appear to have for this still young - a few days shy of 43 as I write this piece - painter from Pakistan. It can almost certainly be said that tales of such dazzling success demand an abundance of sweat, talent and perseverance. It is only then that lady luck deems to smile on you.

A cursory look at how it all started: As a child, Kazim accompanied an older cousin to school where the class was asked to draw. Kazim recalls how what he drew on the slate astounded the teacher. "This is what you call a drawing!" he exclaimed as he held up Kazim's work for all the class to see. For the pre-adolescent Kazim, that was when he became aware of his gift. It was his eureka moment - the moment he knew he was going to become an artist.

Bringing up the rear in his large-scale monochrome polyptych, The Conference of Birds, the spectacle of which meets the eye as one advances to the entrance to Suspended in Time, is a volley of assorted birds in the ascendant. As they progress through the panels they become fewer in number till we are left with the lone bird, the survivor that has made it in the face of adversity: the hudhud or the hoopoe - a symbolic drawing together of the avian and human.