June 22, 2024
Staff report
LAHORE
The Sharjah Art Foundation is currently presenting ‘Lala Rukh: In the Round’, an exhibition of Lala Rukh’s expansive and politically charged body of work. The show spans three decades of her artistic journey, delving into her drawings, printmaking, photography, and video art, all created against the backdrop of political turmoil and feminist movements in Pakistan.
Curated by Hoor Al Qasimi and Natasha Ginwala, with assistant curator Mahmoud El Safadi, the exhibition underscores her pivotal role as a feminist activist artist in South Asia. It includes her rare early works, original posters, publications, and interviews with colleagues from her activism for gender justice and civic rights.
Lala Rukh’s oeuvre is seen as defiant acts of time-keeping, exploring temporality through moonlight gradients, rising waves, coastal sand tracings, solidarity demonstrations, and the contours of living bodies. Her minimalist compositions are marked by horizons, lunar cycles, bodies of water, coastlines, and archaeological sites.
Significant pieces from the Sharjah Art Foundation Collection, as well as lesser-known series from Sri Lanka’s Sigiriya and Pakistan’s Gadani shoreline, are on display. Also, her final work, ‘Rupak’ (2016), which masterfully intertwines mark-making, musicality, and silence, is being exhibited for the first time in the region.
During the oppressive 1980s military dictatorship in Pakistan, Lala Rukh co-founded the Women’s Action Forum (WAF), screen-printing and designing many provocative posters advocating for women’s rights. Her lifelong dedication to Lahore included conservation work, conducting fresco workshops, and personal activism like planting trees and mentoring young girls. As an educator at Punjab University and the National College of Arts, she mentored generations of artists.
Lala Rukh’s commitment to her beloved city of Lahore is a constant thread throughout her life. She worked on conservation, creating a manual for UNESCO and the Getty Museum, and conducting fresco workshops at heritage sites. She was an active member of HRCP, JAC, and Lahore Bachao, and engaged in personal activism, planting trees every morning and supporting young girls in her community.
Born in Lahore in 1948 and passing away in the same city in 2017, Lala Rukh acquired MFA degree from the Punjab University, Lahore as well as the University of Chicago, USA. She taught for 30 years at Punjab University’s Department of Fine Art and the National College of Arts, where she established the MA(Hons) Visual Art Program in 2000.
Her influence as a beloved teacher and mentor continues to inspire generations of artists.