KARACHI: A monograph titled No Man’s Land focusing on the life and work of sculptor Amin Gulgee was launched at the Amin Gulgee Gallery on Sunday evening.

The programme was preceded by performance art. A discussion between novelist H M Naqvi and Amin Gulgee on the publication followed. Naqvi, whose piece on the sculptor’s art and curatorial works is included in the book, read from his essay and put questions to the artist.

Gulgee set the ball rolling by telling the audience, which comprised a decent number of art practitioners and lovers, that it took him two years to put together the book. He expressed his fondness for Naqvi’s two novels, Homeboy and The Selected Works of Abdullah the Cossack.

In response to the first question, Gulgee said about a particular aspect of his art that he makes a line and then keeps going with that line again and again to come up with an image, but the essence for him remains that same line.

The sculptor said he loves the smell of copper. He went down memory lane to tell the interviewer that when he was a young man he used to make art pieces from copper and would get covered in copper dust.

With respect to performance art that Gulgee holds on a regular basis at his gallery, he jokingly referred it to schizophrenia, and then explained that for him there’s no separation between his work and life. He argued that performances are done outside one’s comfort zone. They have their own energy. One cannot predict where they will go.

In response to the query about his curatorial experience for the Karachi Biennale, he said he was absolutely terrified when he undertook the job because there was a lot of pressure. He expressed his gratitude for all those artists who participated in the event despite the fact that he had no budget for it.

Published in Dawn, May 13th, 2025