"P.A.H.G.C.P."

A collaborative project with Adnan Madani, in Karachi. We also collaborated last year on the video work, "The Frankfurt School". Here we again made use of the skills of Mahmood the book-binder.

This is the most recent completed project. Participating in the current group exhibition (curated by Mehreen Murtaza and Umer Butt) at Greynoise Gallery, Lahore.
In the show entitled "Patrons of Oh! My God i can buy Art!" opens 25th October 2009.

Our work is entitled:
"People's Art Historical Garden Centre"
A project of P.A.H.P.
(People's Art and Historical Project)
David Chalmers Alesworth and Adnan Madani
Variations: 1/12
Recycled paper and live seeds.
October 2009

PAHP: Tomorrow's History, Today.

"The P.A.H.G.C. aims to create a new and green space for supra-critical reappraisal of the use-value of art history (as written from the point of view of colonial and post-colonial
govern-mentality), by converting the plastic objects of art history into objects of everyday fetish use for the subjects of history. The dissemination of alter-knowledge and the insemination of alter-culture are the short, medium and long term goals of this project, which conforms closely to the will of the people while correspondingly attempting to shape the contours of that will and its future forms."

David Alesworth
Adnan Madani
Lahore
Oct. 2009


Video documentation and context for "P.A.H.G.C.P"


Mahmood with a collection of raw material.
Oxford University Press's "Image and Identity" by Akbar Naquvi.
In this book he describes my practice in the mid 1990's as being more orientated towards
horticulture than art making.


Iqbal Geoffrey to whom this work is in part homage.


Mahmood at work with editioned works behind him.


In the gallery prior to the opening.


The rosta of participating artists in this group show.




Gallery goers and Mahmood at work producing useful paper bags from this troubled text.
Gallery visitors were encourgaded to take away free art-historical bags containing live vegetable seeds.


The work place, finished bags to the right.


The seeds in the foreground are added to each bag.
They are egg plant, melons, cabbage and chillies.


The twelve editioned works, each bag contains some live seeds,
the local seed packets are inserted into each art-historical bag.
Each bag/seed packet combination is mounted on a facsimile herbarium sheet
and framed with acid free archival materials.




This is the hebarium mount for each of the editioned works.