Two Views

Here is some very unusual art work from Pakistan
Rashid Rana

Born in Lahore, Pakistan, 1968
Lives and works in Lahore

Rashid Rana is part of the young and thriving artistic scene from Pakistan and is one of their most unique and celebrated artists. Rana’s interest lies in the ‘here and now’. He uses iconographic images that challenge the viewer’s perception of contemporary Pakistani art. His work addresses issues of faith, popular culture and incorporates a social/political commentary and parody.

Employing a range of media, Rana’s work reflects a spectrum of issues from popular culture to problems of gender and violence. Exploring the stereotyping of women, Rana in his Veil series looks at two extreme representations of women. From a distance, the image appears to be a group of veiled women. On closer inspection, it is a composite of hundreds of tiny hardcore porn photographs gleaned from the Internet. “I’m not making a statement here. The Internet is a major part of our lives these days and almost 70 percent of what you get on it is porn. It’s also about how men in western countries look at women from non-western or Islamic countries and how men in non-western countries look at western women ”.

How men in western countries look at women from non-western or Islamic countries

VEIL # 1

VEIL #2
VEIL #3
How moslems in non-western countries look at western women

Detail from VEIL #1

Detail from VEIL #2

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Detail from VEIL #3

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