Fahd Burki (born Lahore, Pakistan, 1981) is known for his works on paper employing acrylic, charcoal, marker pen and collage. These works frequently present abstract graphic fields that contain a central form dominating the picture plane. The sources for these forms range from tribal folk art to science fiction. Although these sharp-edged forms can be seen to refer to the type of icons associated with digital media, they are painstakingly produced by hand and, as Murtaza Vali has noted, ‘the result is a series of always playful, at times menacing icons or symbols harvested from a personal mythology of the present, at once disconcertingly familiar and completely novel.’

‘Working primarily as a painter and sculptor, Burki’s residency gave him the opportunity to explore the potential of printmaking in his practice. The transition was a relatively natural one. ‘Ancestors Circle’ was produced using software to realize flat fields of colour with the crisp, sharp outlines characteristic of the artist’s work. He produced five printing separations which were printed from computer on to acetate; these acetates were then exposed on to prepared screens, coated with a light sensitive emulsion, and then printed individually by hand. Although a technically complex work, the image itself is strikingly simple. Aware of the proliferation in Scotland of Neolithic stone circles and the myths these structures embody, the work alludes to Burki’s ongoing research in to universal symbols and archetypes.’[1]