"South Passage..." An evening to remember
Tuesday, April 14, 2009

It was an evening to remember with the usual accompaniments of good wine, food and music for Syrian artist Nasr Warour's eclectic exhibition, 'South Passage' that saw aficionados and diplomats descending on Galerie Romain Rolland, at the Alliance Francaise centre on Friday. The exhibition opened to rave reviews.

His creative repertoire abstract creations, fused with figurative elements that take inspiration from the human feet.

Seen at the exhibition — designer Rohit bal who also opened the show, Dr. Safa of the Syrian Embassy, to Alka Raghuvanshi, artists Seema Kohli, Manav Gupta, Shridhar Iyer, Manisha Gawade and American artist Leslie, jazz singer Wanny, Sanjeeta Datta, Elizabeth Rogers, and an array of people from the Capital's diplomatic circuit and the swish set.

In the 'South Passage' the artist invokes the representational powers of art. Here, the artists' expression represents a much overlooked point of contact between the corpus and the cosmic, the object and the environment, the being and the belonging.

'South' starts as a reference point referring to a section of the human body but eventually blends into the metaphorical space of associated meaning. As feet touch the ground, a passage opens and with its interpretation.

The visual information in each expression of 'The South Passage' is dense yet simple in form. The narrative is intimate yet vivid in its description.

Nasr's interests comprise art, sculpture and literature. His rendezvous with the arts, in fact, started with sculpture. This talented artist also writes poetry in Arabic and often weaves it into his paintings.

In the artist's words, "I try to speak a language through my paintings that everyone can understand and empathise with. What I paint comes from experience, human experience in human settings. It goes beyond the realm of culture and traditions. The subject is always the soul, not the superficial." He illustrates, as in 'South Passage' the content bypasses the barriers of the human body and achieves a connection between the soul and its universe.

Nasr Warour's distinctive creations create a global statement on art. They are a multi-hued tapestry united by one common thread – the universal.

This exhibition attempts to celebrate the unbound free spirit, unfettered and liberated. Through Nasr's works, we are drawn into a world that celebrates life in all its varied nuances. It is about the merging of the human spirit and the 'one'. Undoubtedly, an exhibition with a difference.