Artist: Haider Ali Jan
Date: 2008
Size: 60 x 508 cm
Museum: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane, Australia)
Technique: Photograph
One of the major public rituals in Lahore is the Mourning of Muharram, which commemorates the death of the Prophet Muhammad’s grandson, a display Haider Ali Jan describes as ‘a kind of carnival where everything is exaggerated and everyone is involved in some sort of performance’.Here, the streets are lined with locals waiting for the sacred coffin to be carried past. Ali Jan recognises the irony of people waiting for hours to view an empty coffin, likening the banal spectacle to Samuel Beckett’s play, ‘Waiting for Godot’.Ali Jan belongs to a Shiite family who live in the old city of Lahore. Fusing photographs and digital illustration, he alludes to the contradictions inherent in political rhetoric, media and conventions of belief. Several of his works have been composed around Shiite ritual, particularly the public performance of religious customs and ceremony.Exhibited in
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