The romantic idea of an artist has been of a loner. Detached from family, fellows, friends, contemporaries, and the world at large – with all its concerns and issues. The creative individual is supposed to survive in a private cocoon, but the twentieth century has defused this notion. Art commerce, the spread of galleries, the emergence of private collectors, and the establishment of art schools changed the stereotype icon of an imagemaker.
Visual artists can work now in shared spaces, not as the disciples of Renaissance masters, but independent professionals, producing side by side, occasionally in collaborations; or as a community.
This shift is a response to/against the power and onslaught of market phenomena that perceives, expects, and accepts work of art made by a single maker, hence convenient to label it as a brand. Artists’ residencies, on the other hand, offer a different option. In these, artists of diverse experiences, exposures, pictorial disciplines, diction, and pasts spend time with each other, share ideas, and work in the same studio, thus discovering that essential, yet long-neglected component of them, which lies in their fellow practitioners.
Vasl Artists Collective is one such example in our country. Its first International Artists’ Residency was held in 2003 at Gadani, Karachi. An initiative that has evolved into a network of residencies for young practitioners, visiting artists, curators, and art writers, etc. Vasl, through its Taaza Tareen Young Artist Residency, Museum Series Residency, and several others, has been playing a major role in transforming the ecosystem of art in our society.
Although artists’ residencies are not a unique phenomenon in the art world, but it acquires a special significance in the context of Pakistan. A country with a history of around 75 years and a past spread to more than five thousand years, here the art institutions of art are rather recent establishments. Although they have been training generations in various areas of visual arts, once a person graduates, there is no venue and support system to sustain his/her creative pursuits. Public spaces, due to their self-assumed prestige, official status, and bureaucratic procedures, scarcely open their doors to emerging artists. The same is the case with private galleries, which (except for a few) because of market pressure and buyers’ demand remain reluctant to display the recent graduates. In addition, many eager artists cannot find a venue to work, interact, and exchange ideas after leaving their alma mater.
Here, the role of residencies assumes a greater responsibility. It provides artists the opportunity to locate their independent voices and speak with their fellow artists, while keeping their personal accents. In Pakistan there have been many residencies, some regular, others with gaps, several altogether discontinued, a number of them experimental, a few following norms, some held in a fixed locale; others at shifting venues, a few in private spaces, or at large factories – which include, Mansion Residency; Sanat Incubation; Pioneers’ Artists Residency in collaboration with Canvas Gallery; Murree Museum Recently; Neela Aasman Residency; Dastaangoi; Articulate Studios Residency; and COLABS Creative Collective (CCC); but Vasl’s initiative is respected for being seminal. Today it incorporates a network of ventures, such as a few for young practitioners, visiting artists, curators, and art writers, etc. Vasl, through Taaza Tareen Young Artist Residency; Museum Series Residency; and several other programmes, has been revamping the art of this nation.
Thus, art in Pakistan cannot be confined to galleries, nor caged in private residencies, nor limited to conventional formats (paintings, sculptures, etc.), it manifests in forms that were unimaginable some decades ago. Only because the participants of Vasl or other residencies are not compelled to produce a preconceived expression/object. This never-tasted, nor-tried freedom, rare in our surroundings, leads to ambitious works, some created in studios, in collaborations, or with public participation.
Another, probably the most significant characteristic of Vasl Artists’ Collective is its vision, extended to art-making, art criticism, curating, research, archiving, and documentation. Due to this multiplicity, Vasl Artists’ Collective is not tagged for promoting one type of practitioners, but is known and respected for inviting and facilitating professionals of divergent views, works, and preferences. Therefore, the outcome of every project is not a repetition of already digested material, but an unseen, daring, and daunting matter. An entity that retains a tiny but permanent space in the minds of the audience, who identify with the idea, aesthetics, and structure of an outcome, more than its nameable description.
Identical is the case with Vasl’s physical location, since its great contribution to the art of this nation, it hardly matters, or is noticed the change of its actual space; because it has turned into an idea, which resides in the mind, never to fade, or be removed, or repressed.