I recently sat down for a detailed discussion with Julius John Alam about his practice; what motivates him and most significantly, the new body of work titled Songs of the Suffering Servant that he has recently completed for his solo show in Islamabad. Alam’s artistic endeavours from his degree show at NCA in 2013 to now, represent an ongoing journey of catharsis, growth and redemption, although, compared to his earlier work, his new works have traversed along a related tangent since completing his MFA degree from The New School, Parsons School of Art and Design, New York. The artist has experienced transformations, both in his professional and personal life, particularly with regards to his spiritual journey. Having taken a break to re-align himself to his creator, Alam has recently returned to making art after a short hiatus and a lot of soul searching. Over a span of several years, Alam has gone from anti-religion/atheist to wholly God conscious as a consequence of a transcendent and mysterious encounter with an otherworldly being in 2015, which prompted him to explore religion with zeal. This experience has had a major impact on his world-view and thus his art-making.

Growing up in a minority Christian community in Lahore, religion was always at the periphery of his art-making; it was a means of giving perspective to circumstances. His thesis work Ahle Allaqa ko Eid Mubarak is a testament to this, where, a multiple-part installation including large scale drawings, lacquer, and concrete debris is used to comment on the government’s socio-political moves such as gentrification that simultaneously ostracise minority communities.

Between then and now, Alam’s trajectory has shifted dramatically from having religion on the periphery to placing it at center stage. In retrospect, Alam reflects that his earlier work symbolically represented the suffering of Christ through the struggles faced by the Christian community in Bahar Colony and Youhanabad, Lahore. Presently, the artist explains that his art practice serves as a means to connect with the divine and immerse himself in sacred space-time. He elaborates that the result of this immersion, the artwork itself, inherently becomes a reflection of the divine body. Through his affiliation to the Christian faith, he experiences this divine union through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In the series titled Songs of the Suffering Servant, Alam’s drawings and sculptures serve as representations of the literal suffering body of Christ as it appears on the cross. These interactive pieces are designed for viewers to touch, evoking an incorporeal sense of pain.

Alam has long endeavoured to represent that which is non-representable. To elucidate, he attempted to represent the notion of prayer with his work Wait/Weight, as part of a project titled Orison of Kenosis in 2017 at Sanat Initiative in Karachi. The work consisted of two hundred plaster pieces that embodied the negative space between one’s hands when in the prayer position. It was through this work that the artist arrived at the futility in attempting to represent the unrepresentable. This realization became both a question and a pivotal starting point for the artist’s future work, as he discovered his fascination with liminal spaces. In his current project, the artist navigates the intersection of two states while attempting to depict Jesus’s sacrifice. For Alam, “the incident of crucifixion, which resonates emotionally and lingers in our psyches despite the passage of time, remains a current event. It is not merely a historical event; it continues to evoke profound emotions in practicing Christians, rendering it a living and, therefore, non-representable occurrence.” This insight highlights Alam’s position at a liminal threshold in his artistic practice, evolving from his explorations of Christian communal struggle to a deeper investigation of the religion itself—both being offshoots of the same central core.

Considering the artist’s keen interest in the various facets of Christianity and lived experience, it is unsurprising that Phenomenology– a branch of philosophy that focuses on the role of experiences in forming meaning and thus understanding and acting– informs his visual practice. In 2016 the artist presented the work Shama Jalti Rahi, at Koel Gallery in Karachi which speaks to the lynching of fifty-one Christians since the passing of the blasphemy law in 1986. Sehar Tareen describes this work as ‘a bold memorialisation of the lives lost to violence in a community that is marginalised, persecuted and, worst of all, overlooked, even in death. Which is the ultimate insult to an unforgivable injury. Through his art, Alam takes on the mantle to honour and memorialise these forgotten lives’ (ArtNow, Aug 2016). The work was a poignant representation of the artist’s emotional response to the traumatic event, specifically the burning of a 27-year-old woman, Shama, and her husband for allegedly desecrating the Quran. By transforming this distressing occurrence into a powerful artistic statement, the artist created fifty-one hand-sewn books composed of latha fabric, imbuing the pain and suffering of the couple’s ordeal into a deeply personal and cathartic form of expression.

In his upcoming oeuvre Songs of the Suffering Servant, the work Stigmata II (drawing) and Stigmata IV (marble sculpture), sees Alam’s return to a book as his visual, carrying on from the experience of mourning, Alam intends to “commemorate Jesus’ passion on the cross as an act of devotion… (he) also wanted to create an emotional bridge between the suffering body of Christ and that of the viewer.’ (artist interview, June 2024). Stigmata IV depicts two hand shaped depressions on an open centrefold of a book made in marble. Each depression has a spike protruding from the middle as if someone with holes in their hands had pressed upon and left behind an impression on the pages. The pointy protruding spike allows viewers to experience a stinging sensation on their palms reminiscent of the suffering of Christ and subsequently form a connection with the body of Christ. Thus is the aim of the artist, ‘I use the parts of the body that are indexical of the suffering body of Christ, for example, the pierced hands and feet, the crown of thorns, the wounded side, etc.’

Alam considers his work as poesis, an instance that in his case implies the amalgamation of poetry and visual art to produce something new. According to him, ‘poetry is an attempt to make visible that which is invisible or to present something that is beyond presentation. The outcome is obviously futile, but the attempt itself is poetic.’ The process of making, for him, is akin to being in dialogue with the divine; to quote Alam, ‘The constant attempt to present that which is beyond presentation is a state of being. This being is characterised by an orientation towards the divine. To see the vestige of this mode of being (poiesis) as a work of poetry, be it a poem or an artwork. I see man as a dialogical being. Human existence is dialogical in nature. And for me, there is no difference between the state of being in dialogue with the Divine, the process of making artwork, and the vestige of this process, that is, the artwork.’

The artist’s interests evoke themes akin to those found in Renaissance and pre-Renaissance art, particularly their engagement with Christianity; however, his visual style is distinctly unique. While Alam’s drawings are representational, they lack the hyper-realism often associated with historical devotional art, and they do not incorporate the covert symbolism—such as halos, lambs, or doves—commonly seen in later Renaissance works. Instead, his visuals are grounded in personal experience and aim to elicit abstract emotions that invite contemplation and deeper meaning. His exploration of the wonders of Christianity and encounters with the divine serves as a reflection of his own life struggles. As Alam himself notes, ‘I would rather compare my work with Christian mystics, like St. John of the Cross, who, much like Muslim Sufis, conveyed their spiritual experiences through poetry.’ Through his forthcoming drawings and interactive sculptures, he seeks to evoke in his audience the profound suffering experienced by Christ and his followers.

In the vibrant landscape of the Pakistani art scene, artists frequently channel their gratitude, grievances, or acts of veneration towards a divine presence, at times incorporating religious iconography to provoke thought. For Julius John Alam, his artistic practice serves as a profound investigation—a quest for meaning. It is to be hoped that Alam’s visual poetry, inspired by the scriptures Isaiah 42:1–4, Isaiah 49:1–6, Isaiah 50:4–11, and Isaiah 52:13–53:12, will contribute to essential religious discourse within the contemporary art world—a space that embraces tolerance and secularism.

Julius John Alam’s solo show ‘Wounds of Love’, featuring new works from his latest collection ‘Songs of the Suffering Servant’, is on display at Khaas Contemporary in Islamabad from February 6 to 18, 2025.

Title Image: He Will Not Put Out a Flickering Candle, Graphite on Paper, 21cm x 29cm, 2024

All images are courtesy of, and are copyrighted by Julius John Alam.

References

Interview with Julius John Alam by Samar F. Zia, June 2024

‘The Prodigal Son Returns’, by Tareen, Sehar, August 1, 2016, ArtNow https://www.artnowpakistan.com/the-prodigal-son-returns/

Julius John Alam, The Curtain Of the Temple Tore in Two, 2014, White Turban, Julius John Alam | White Turban

‘The art of Darkness’, by Quddus Mirza, January 12, 2014, The News, Art of darkness | Art & Culture | thenews.com.pk

‘Space, time and Memory’ by Numair A. Abbasi, September 13, 2020, Dawn News, https://www.dawn.com/news/1579130

Artist statements and Exhibition catalogues