Art Series, First brainchild: Conceptual Art. “In conceptual art the idea or concept is the most important aspect of the work. When an artist uses a conceptual form of art, it means that all of the planning and decisions are made beforehand and the execution is a perfunctory affair.” â LeWitt, âParagraphs on Conceptual Artâ, Artforum Vol.5, no. 10, Summer 1967, pp. 79-83 It emerged as an art movement in the 1960s and the term usually refers to art made from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s.
Nostalgia (noun) nos¡âtal¡âgia | \ nä-Ëstal-jÉthe: state of being homesick / a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition. The word “nostalgia” was first in 1688. Those who were obsessed with returning to their estranged locations became physically, sometimes fatally, sick. To reflect this phenomena, the medical student Johannes Hofer coined the medical term ânostalgiaâ, which he created by combining the Greek words nostos (homecoming) & alga (pain). After that, for the longest term it was termed as a medical condition & medical specialists would try to locate “nostalgia bone” in their patients.
It was in 19th century, when doctors finally stopped seeking a litetal “nostalgia bone.” It was accepted that nostalgia is not a medical diagnosis. The word then entered the second life we know it for now: an emotional state characterized by a wistful affection for the past. Nostalgia can manifest in a variety of ways. When I had to envision an idea for #conceptualart, I wanted it to be nothing else but the feeling of nostalgia that is evoked by things that belong to the time we yearn for or the moments the heart longs for. For me, it is a sunny afternoon in 1997, drenched in silence, a girl sitting by the door, jhumkay dangling in her earlobes, words simmering under her skin as she reads a poetry book and smiles. My heart longs to be there, to go and sit with her. Sometimes, you can feel nostalgic for things that only exist in your mind. I want you to tell me how does this picture make you feel?
Hafsa Usmani 