Mahbub Jokhio

Pakistani artist Mehbub Jokhio’s work discusses and decodes the very nature of images, specifically the way they are perceived and interpreted. Perhaps influenced by Jean Baudrillard’s conception of simulacra and simulation, Jokhio is interested in the image’s claim to objectivity, the photograph’s assertion of truth and verisimilitude, and how, when reality and fiction are blurred, the image becomes loaded with power. He is interested in the relationship between the medium and the viewer, and the journey that the image and its message takes in order to reach its prosumer. Jokhio’s practice – which is not consigned to one medium and bleeds across video, collage and performative photography – incorporates dark humour, irony and self-referentiality, and turns its attention to subject matters spanning religion, history, death, violence and love. ...