Biography

Born in 1989 in Lahore Pakistan. Idrees Hanif graduated with distinction from BNU (Beaconhouse National University) Lahore in 2014. 

As an artist, I have been working with the medium of sculpture and using transformation as the main visual element in my practice using a variety of materials to put across the concerns in it. The non-rigidity of the body of work has been one of the personal concerns throughout every project but like every structure, language has the capacity of being one of the most subtle of them. It’s addictive. This led my practice into the questioning of its own elements (constants and variables).

 My work has been conceived with the conception of deconstructive engagement with the practice formally and conceptually.  The works that are made are the resultant of the understanding and critique of the previous methods and elements that constituted my work and the particular imagery that became a language for my practice. Also, the engagement with the social fabric becomes the main reserve from which the visuals drive their various narratives- keeping the work volatile than static.  

The visual and conceptual absurdity of other works in which transformed objects can be understood as the remains/residue of my practice till now and throwing it back in with the clichéd elements that are much relevant in the society- generating a dialogue revolving around the poetics of the very space that thrives on the idea of the Witness rather than understanding the “difference” as the main element of growth. It’s the absurdity that gives the work an abstract aura and throws it in the paradigm of the fluxus while using very tangible elements or visual signifiers.
The interest here is although the signifiers are used apparent to everyone- but they are juxtaposed such that all they signify is the capacity of the image to destruct the unconscious yet strong connotations. The absurdity is the existentialism that works in between the layers of the work. The works suspend itself in between “the life/real” and “the unreal”. It thrives on this conceptual flux of the meanings-the transformation becomes the flux that places the work into a
No-man’s land- the “unland”; the land of Kafkaesque loops and absurdities- the land of socio-personal vertigo.

Idrees Hanif Lives and works in Lahore.