A utopia is a community or society possessing highly desirable or near perfect qualities and has become a favorite topic in contemporary art where hopes for better future are expressed.

Alternatively, a dystopia is a community that is in some important way undesirable or frightening. It is utopia’s perfect antithesis and where the future is just a hypothesis.

During this residency the idea of dystopian themes became apparent to me in Cleveland. This idea is explored in my work both in terms of their visual vocabulary as well as through the techniques and materials used to create the images.

The wrapped soft toys in gauze have been a recurring theme in my work for a while now, are of a young to take a direction. Their distorted representation provokes interpretations and can be read and experienced at many levels: personal, social, political and philosophical.

About Adeel uz Zafar

Karachi- based artist Adeel uz Zafar, has been hailed as an emerging Pakistani artist largely through his innovative technique of scratching onto a prepared surface. This was a technique he initiated in the remote Northern areas of his home country. He has refined his technique using plastic vinyl sheet coated with emulsion and acrylic gel depicting stuff children’s toys wrapped in gauze bandages. The result are large scale drawings with meticulously detailed images that are, at the same time, monstrous and innocent. www.adeeluzzafar.com