Interview with metal sculptor; Amin Gulgee (August Man, Mar 09)

Drawing the line

Making sense of the life

He was casual and I was rushing although I wasn’t late. I caught a glimpse of him against the backdrop of his works and then I wondered how he would react to my genuine wide-eyed curiosity. His glasses made his eyes seem larger than they really are and they blink almost excessively. At certain angles, it was like staring at someone through a fishbowl. I almost thought of him as eccentric, but as the man puts it himself “I think everyone is eccentric to a certain extent. We are all artists, in actual fact.”

With a father who was also a famous artist in his native Pakistan, one would expect his approach as an artist to be merely a follow up to that. However, as he explained, his career as an artist was purely accidental. “My life has been a series of accidents”, said sculptor Amin Gulgee. “Although I grew up in a house with paints and brushes, I had no hands-on guidance from my father. Studio art was the last thing I wanted to do”, he claims. But after writing a thesis on the Mughal Gardens, he decided to give the artist life a go and this is where he has been since.

In his recently exhibition at Galeri Petronas entitled Drawing the Line, Amin showcased 13 new pieces and 13 old pieces, all of which bear a striking resemblance to one another. I asked him if this was intentional “Copper and bronze are the only glorious metals that exist-they stay forever and I like that permanence-the fact that they will remain”.

It is clear to see that he holds his faith dearly to his heart. Most of his works are interpretations of Quranic verses, scriptures as well as calligraphy, presented in 3 dimensions.  “God for me is everything-it is me-it is you-it is the wind outside-it is the light we see-it’s everything horrible and wonderful” he said.  One of my personal favourites is ‘Chance’; a structure of a DNA molecule which has the word ‘Allah’ inscribed all over it. “To me, that is God” he said when asked to comment about it. “What’s beautiful about Islam and its relevance to my work is its submission to God and that there is a direct link between God and a person. You create your own balance between chance and you” he added.

There is a lot of confusion in regards to the matter these days as a lot of people mask their own selfish gains in the name of religion. Yet, amidst all the chaos that is going on out there, here stood a man who speaks of it so beautifully, so passionately and not in the least imposing. “Like oil and water, politics and religion should never mix. How could anyone talk of the divine in worldly terms”, he said.

Amin’s work is hard and raw, but references to something so simple as life and religion give it a more human approach. Some of them looked like they weren’t even finished! “They aren’t” he explained to me with a smile. “Some of them will never be finished. That is what I like about geometrical Islamic calligraphy-it goes on and on”.

Some of his other works make reference to the concept of movement, the idea of using one’s bare hands to achieve something. ‘Climbing’, a tall tower like structure with copper hands latching all the way to the top is one such and ‘Ripping the bird’s nest’ is another, of human hands tearing away at a bird’s lair.

He admits that his ideas come and go as they please. Sometimes he will start a certain sculpture and abandon it halfway for another idea that may be fresh in his mind. “A lot of the time, you just have a feeling and at other times, you really know. Mine is a very chaotic process-not very elegant” he said. Often when he finds himself uninspired, he creates jewellery, which has complemented Mary McFadden’s Spring/Summer collection in 1996.

Amin is trying to make sense of the world through his work. Some people overanalyse things, but he keeps it simple, possibly because he’s an artist. But maybe that’s what we all need-to keep it simple, and if his metallic sculptures resonates such thoughts within us, then why not?