![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/rsz_nightinthegardenoflove_agakhanmuseum_\u00a9alymanji_02.jpg\")
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nThe entrance to the exhibition. Courtesy of the Aga Khan Museum 2023 Photography \u00a9 Aly Manji<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Entering the exhibition, you\u2019ll find yourself walking through a map of vintage textile hangings by Shezad Dawood alongside drawings by Yusef Lateef, works that Dawood found himself fascinated with, along with Yusef\u2019s decades of musical impact. Dawood describes the combination of these painted textiles and other art forms in the exhibition as call-and-response to Lateef\u2019s music, novella, and drawings.<\/p>\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nInstallation view with Shezad Dawood textiles and Priya Ahluwalia\u2019s designs of Mutant Dancers. Courtesy of the Aga Khan Museum 2023 Photography \u00a9 Aly Manji<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As you enter the \u2018call and response\u2019 area, you will notice the metaphor of the garden beginning to emerge. You are surrounded not only by the combination of Dawood\u2019s work and Lateef\u2019s remarkable drawings based on his musical scores but also by other media talents like fashion designers, immersive film and VR technicians, along with many more exciting performances and pieces provided by the Aga Khan Museum. The character is known as the Mutant from Lateef\u2019s novella. You can also see the Dancing Mutant (performed by Wan-Lun Yu in a 12-minute VR (virtual realty) experience, produced by UBIK Productions and co-commissioned by WIELS in Brussels and the Aga Khan Museum, Toronto. The themes and characters from Lateef\u2019s novella fill every corner of the space.<\/p>\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nShezad Dawood, Night in the Garden of Love, (VR) 2023, duration variable. Courtesy of the artist. Produced by UBIK Productions. Co-commissioned by WIELS, Brussels and Aga Khan Museum, Toronto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dawood has opened a garden full of creative, futuristic, and intercultural conversations, and an invitation to contemplate global issues in a healing way. This exhibition celebrates Lateef\u2019s legacy. The dynamic, how Dawood describes \u201csymphony,\u201d is a new way of thinking about music and art. Lateef\u2019s storytelling abilities demonstrate the process in a fictional setting. His drawings are mostly \u201cuntitled\u201d because it is never about the visual outcome but rather about the artist\u2019s journey and daily practice of planting. His work is creative and multi-sensory and meant to lead to a progressive change in our relationship to nature.<\/p>\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nYusef Lateef, Untitled (Night in the Sea of Love) N.D. watercolour, acrylic, metallics. Courtesy of the Aga Khan Museum 2023 Photography \u00a9 Aly Manji<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of Lateef\u2019s drawings, \u201cUntitled (Night in the Sea of Love)\u201d, is located right before you enter the greater hall showing his work. All of his artwork depicts his interest in organic forms. Later in the exhibition, you will see these forms in seven algorithmically generated plants responding to a new musical score inspired by Lateef. The 16 exhibited drawings by Lateef\u2019s are mixed-media explorations of his music, his spirituality and the physical world around him. The focus of these works is the free form; he uses the same method in his drawings as in his written work. For him the process of the creation of the work is more important than the result. He intends to show how quickly everything changes and transforms, depending on what we do to nature with our hands and how we use resources that are available.<\/p>\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nYusef Lateef, Untitled (Night in the Garden of Love), acrylic, chalk and watercolor on paper. Courtesy of the Aga Khan Museum 2023 Photography \u00a9 Aly Manji<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dawood painted the Mutant Dancer and then collaborated with Priya Ahluwalia, a UK-based designer, on the costume sculptures, including Mutant Dancer 1 and 2. They are made from Dawood\u2019s textile archive of repurposed vintage fabrics collected from the 70\u2019s. Here the colours, patterns and textiles combine to create a contemporary dance, embracing the idea of harmonious partnership of revival and survival in a constantly changing world.<\/p>\n\n\n
<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nShezad Dawood, Mutant Dancer, 2023, acrylic on vintage textile\u00a0hanging. Courtesy of the Aga Khan Museum 2023 Photography \u00a9 Aly Manji<\/p>\n\n\n