Exhibition Text
Mohammed Qasim Ashfaq: VOLUME
Hannah Barry Gallery, London
Written on the occation of VOLUME, a solo exhibition of specially created digital works by Mohammed Qasim Ashfaq presented by Hannah Barry Gallery as part of the second edition of the London Vortic Collective (3 March – 30 April 2021).
Using specialist 3D technology that composed CGI graphite and mesh geometry with custom material shaders, the exhibition presented three innovative works that explored the extended material properties of graphite within computer software.
London Collective brings together 40 of London’s leading contemporary galleries on the new extended reality and virtual exhibition platform, Vortic Collect.
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Extract —
“VOLUME is an exhibition about materiality, form and unity. It is composed of three specially madeartworks by Mohammed Qasim Ashfaq that respond directly to the architecture of Vortic’s gallery, challenging the limits of its space and software. Each monochrome work explores a singular plane ofgraphite rendered in divergent form, shimmering between pure surface and limitless depth. Born from theexperience of Ashfaq’s physical drawings — from meticulous geometric forms executed on paper tomonumental orbital installations crafted directly onto the wall’s surface — VOLUME explores thepotential of the digital realm to express granular intensities of line, depth and aura. Its effect is a virtualhall of mirrors: velocities of light and mass entwine to exceed our rational expectations.
Ashfaq’s work is an invitation to look at the world, to look again and look better. His visual languageinvokes the tessellation of Islamic ornament and mysticism sharpened with technological precision. It is acoinciding space, one of meditation and a slow but fierce propulsion to the future, one where ideals ofmodernism and science fiction take hold. Shapes we consider stable collapse, reconstructed as a fluidrelationship of sculptural energy. Typically composed of stratifications of many single graphite lines, thetranslation of Ashfaq’s work from analogue to digital brings to attention an environment in which themetaphysics of the image are central, caught as it is between spiritual transcendence and a fidelity to theraw materials of data, light and form.”