Lot Essay
Amjad Ali Talpur's works are highly subtle critiques of undemocratic regimes and the lack of transparency in Pakistan's government. His previous series of miniature works use the format of the puzzle where he depicts mid-level courtiers and officials taken out of context from the famed Mughal Padshanama. These figures, essential to the levers of power are sympathetically rendered as solitary figures in a giant political machine or game. In this work, Talpur uses the element of the game or chess piece in a symbolic manner again expressing the notion of the everyman in Pakistani society manipulated by unseen forces as a fallen red pawn.