Fractured Cosmos

2018

Ink pen drawings, laser-cut paper, acrylic boxes

Koel Gallery
Karachi, Pakistan

Rohtas 2 Gallery
Lahore, Pakistan

School of Visual Arts
New York, NY

Fractured Cosmos is an investigation of cosmic interconnectedness through patterns in nature, the human brain, cosmos, and geometric patterns. The dendrites and neural networks in our brains form patterns that resemble the intergalactic cosmic web networks. Scientific research shows that the cosmic web and the human brain are more like each other than the cosmic web is to the interior of a galaxy or the neural network is to the interior of a neuronal body. 

The concept of the universe as a giant brain with fractal patterns as the blueprint of all creation has been the subject of scientific study. The patterns in nature correspond to different geometric shapes and their principles of construction are the same in which the Islamic geometric patterns used in South Asian art and architecture are created, leading to the theory of Sacred Geometry that identifies our oneness.

Drawings of fractured tree parts and rocks/agates with branches and dendrite networks growing from them are juxtaposed with geometric patterns, reorganizing similar and disparate elements to create new systems. Just as nature is malleable, constantly changing and adapting, fragments of disparate elements are combined to create new structures as a metaphor for creating new realities from broken parts and destructive experiences.

My large-scale Fractured Cosmos installation explores the possibility of form as itinerant by probing the boundaries of artistic medium. Design that starts as pen-and-ink drawing transmutes into other material, which in turn offers a trompe l'oeil play on its own materiality. Sections from my 2018 Fractured Cosmos drawings were assembled as installations and displayed in acrylic boxes: laser cut paper springs from the wall like tree branches tangled with geometric filigree. The drawings themselves appear to have escaped from the bounds of their surface, attaining a life of their own. As the forms protrude from the wall, the viewer is surrounded, as though having entered the space of the drawing itself. Broadly, the Fractured Cosmos project was a major undertaking for me; it represents a key moment in my research into the commonality between art and nature as linked through pattern.

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