Dubai: Volte Art Projects in Dubai is currently hosting It Lies Beyond, a powerful solo exhibition by Rashid Rana, one of South Asia’s most influential contemporary artists. Coinciding with the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28), this timely showcase engages deeply with pressing environmental and cultural narratives through monumental scale, intricate detail, and cutting-edge technology.
A Dialogue Between the Micro and Macro
In It Lies Beyond, Rana invites viewers to question their sense of scale by blending vast panoramas with minute imagery. At first glance, the sweeping seascapes appear serene, but closer inspection reveals layered compositions, heaps of garbage and symbolic references to post-Renaissance exploration, colonial trade, industrial expansion, consumerism, and climate degradation.
The work becomes a commentary on humanity’s intertwined history of progress and exploitation, with polluted waters standing as a stark metaphor for the damage caused by overconsumption. Augmented Reality technology further enriches the viewing experience, transforming static images into immersive encounters.
Desperately Seeking Paradise
Alongside It Lies Beyond, Rana presents Desperately Seeking Paradise, a monumental stainless-steel sculpture that shifts between minimalism and complexity depending on the viewer’s vantage point. From one perspective, it mirrors its surroundings; from another, it reveals a skyline built from hundreds of tiny photographs of homes in Lahore. This interplay between micro and macro continues Rana’s exploration of duality, nostalgia, and displacement.
Art, Technology, and Possibility
Rana’s practice often merges traditional concepts with emerging technologies, including AI, Virtual Reality, and even DNA-based art. While open to AI’s creative potential, he maintains that its current scope is still evolving, emphasizing the need for larger, more diverse databases before it reaches its full capacity.
His recent collaboration with neo-biologist Dr. Faisal Khan in Mumbai embedded data into DNA strands, a medium that could preserve information indefinitely. As Dean at BNU, Rana also fosters cross-disciplinary learning, offering courses that merge art with synthetic biology.
Dubai as a Creative Crossroads
Rana’s decision to present this body of work in Dubai reflects the city’s growing role as a cultural hub bridging regions like South Asia, North Africa, and beyond. In his view, political barriers have hindered creative exchange between cities such as Karachi and Mumbai, but Dubai offers an open platform reminiscent of past art capitals like Paris and New York.
A Timeless Yet Urgent Message
By layering contemporary technology onto an existing body of work, Rana has amplified its relevance, allowing audiences to interact with the art in new ways. Through AR, his visual narratives now extend into immersive dialogues, prompting viewers not just to look, but to engage, question, and reflect on the global climate crisis.
It Lies Beyond runs at Volte Art Projects, offering a rare opportunity to witness an artist who masterfully balances conceptual innovation with poetic visual storytelling, urging us to see both the beauty and the burden of the world we inhabit.
