Mo Shah, a Pakistani-born, Hong Kong-based artist whose career started after graduating from New York University, will be showcasing his work “Test Pattern Infinity” at Fabrik Gallery’s first photographic exhibition next week.
In his upcoming showcase, opening Wednesday Aug. 26, Shah utilises the primary block colours and spooky figures often seen on the TV sets of yesterday when a transmitter was active but no programme was broadcast.
British readers of a certain age may remember this little girl, her chalkboard and a clown, who together served the same purpose from 1967 until the late 90s.
Similar to any other of his shows – most recently, Shah has seen his work added to the permanent collection at the Photography Museum of Seoul’s Contemporary Art Gallery – the artist “wants people to react to the work”, and hopes to “inspire new narratives, thoughts and modes of thinking, ultimately making viewers question past learnings and stereotypes, while testing the limits of their imagination”.
Thankfully for us, however, Shah admits, “that’s asking a lot”.
Since moving here in October 2011, Shah was surprised to find how “Hong Kong has been particularly fortuitous for me with regards to my artwork… as my work pushes a few boundaries with regards to theme and style”.
Much of his thematic focus, “film-based pop art”, stems from a “heavy diet of television, music and film”, living in five different countries (Pakistan, Brussels, London, New York, Hong Kong), as well as travelling to “remote locations like North Korea, Myanmar and Nepal”.
Shah shared that his artwork “is my perception of the world – internalised, deconstructed, reconfigured, and then exploded back onto canvas”.
Using these foundations, his goal is “to highlight the beauty of merged philosophies and cultures, whilst rendering any tensions between them as obsolete or out of place”.
Symbolism is a common thread in Shah’s artwork as well. Heavily influenced by Salvador Dali, Jean-Michel Basquiat and David Lynch, his originality aims to “assign mercurial roles to them [symbolic characters] that transcend their historical aesthetic or political functions”.
Shah has also “culled several techniques and traditions from cinema” that add to his surrealist art methods.
Victory Girls [Sequence 2: Dark Altitude], 2015
As a National Photographic Art Exhibition Critics’ Choice Award recipient, Shah is at the very least exceptionally qualified.
Monarch pop! (black), 2015
Mo Shah, at Yoyoi Kusama’s “A Dream I Dreamed” exhibition in ShanghaiWhen: Aug. 26 – Sept. 21
Gallery opening hours: M-F 10am-6pm; Saturday and Sunday by appointment only
Where: Fabrik Gallery, 1102 Nam Wo Hong Building, 148 Wing Lok Street, Sheung Wan (Google Maps)
