Tribute To A Friend

Published January 2010

I will always remember the first time I met Asim Butt. It was in Singapore, circa 1989. We were a bunch of new students, gearing up for the scary world of high school during the early days of orientation.

There we were, a fine lot of us. Coltish, unsure, nervous. Looking around and studying each other. Nervous smiles and butterflies in stomachs. Trying to muster the best nonchalant expressions an 11 year old could.

Then Asim made his appearance. Tall for his age. Slender would be a great way to describe him, with a megaton watt smile. He spoke to everyone he came across. He was calm and grinned from ear to ear as he introduced himself, also a fellow newbie, to the rest of us.

When he got to me I tried to break the ice further by asking him if he got teased a lot for his surname. “It makes me the butt of a lot of jokes but I don’t mind,” he offered politely as he waited for me to react to the pun.

Several well-intended chuckles and a smattering of exchanges later we were ushered towards our respective tutor groups and headed off in different directions. That was the start of our five year friendship.

We did have several art and drama classes together and I suspect we fancied ourselves as artistic. But then again we were encouraged to be precocious. I veered towards music and languages while Asim shifted focus to the stage. During my time in high school, I cannot say that Asim and I were best friends. We weren’t that. But we were close, in the way that connoisseurs of, say, a fine wine, would be. Selectively in the know. Leaning in to discuss one form or art or another, from time to time.

Now, embarrassingly, I can’t remember the last time I saw Asim, or if I even said goodbye to him before I left high school. But I do know that we got back in touch over Facebook in 2007. This was someone I met almost 21 years ago and he was now just a click away.

I discovered that my old friend had moved back home to Pakistan in 2002 after abandoning his PhD in History at the University of California, and had become something of a poignant enfant terrible whose work was taking the country’s art scene by storm. Yes Asim had indeed stuck to his artistic roots, but instead of fine-tuning his dramatic skills he chose to focus on becoming an artist proper.

And what an artist. Sure there is a bit of personal bias here, but if you were to simply Google Asim Butt you’d come across wonderful reviews from renowned stalwarts such as BBC, ABC, Al-Jazeera, The Chicago Tribune and The Boston Globe, to name but a few. Asim was also known by many in Pakistan for his Graffiti art; particularly for his “Eject” button spray-painted on the walls of many city venues, symbolizing the end of General Musharraf’s government. Asim was also responsible for the “Stop” signs sprayed on torched cars and damaged buildings after Benazir Bhutto’s assassination. He was making an impact. People were paying attention.

I particularly enjoyed a review by The Lahore Times in April 2009 of one of Asim’s shows: “Rejecting what is on the horizon of Pakistani art, Butt has stuck to his innate traumas and nightmares, using the medium of oil on canvas.

Butt is a rebellious artist who paints, sculpts, and has an interest in graffiti and printmaking. Through his 16 large size canvases, he continues to defy conformist meanings of family, career, security.

The medium of oil on canvas, digital prints, and charcoal and chalk on board, acquire political tones, conversing with the inner apparitions of the artist.”

Perhaps his ‘innate traumas and nightmares’, the very fuel for his work, influenced his decision to throw in the towel. My friend, Asim Butt, took his own life on Friday, January 15^th 2010, while at his home in Karachi. He was 31 years old.

Another alumni member, film director Risa Okamoto, summed him up succinctly and perfectly: “Asim was so totally memorable. I didn't see him at all after he left school but I still remember what his voice sounded like and what his mannerisms were. It's crazy, some people just leave a huge imprint wherever they go.”

It was Risa who informed me of Asim’s death. I spent my entire Sunday reading tribute after tribute to my fallen friend. I had no idea he had moved or affected so many, so greatly. It was touching yet agonizing to read messages from people I will probably never meet, who felt exactly as I did at that very moment. Numbingly surreal. And painfully humbling.

I hope that my words here will serve as an appropriate tribute to someone who is no longer with us. It upsets me to think of what he could have accomplished in the future. It was that bright. And I also wonder if he was in pain when he died. Without judgement, I struggle to understand what could have made him feel that low, to make him think that he had no other options left.

But then I realize that he is at peace now, something which he wasn’t able to find or feel when he was alive. While that gives me some level of comfort, I just want to say very simply, very plainly and very honestly that I miss my friend. I miss him a lot.

In loving memory Asim Butt 1978 - 2010

(Photograph by Ziad Zafar)

Sources: www.pakistaniat.com/ www.stuckism.com

Beneath The Surface

Beneath The Surface - Published November 2007

I have always maintained the old adage that everyone has a fascinating story to them. All it takes is to spend some time with someone and get a good flow of conversation going. Ask enough questions. What you discover could amaze you.

I found this to be especially true when I met Bob Hartley. This affable and disarmingly pleasant man will set even the most reserved individual at ease with a ready smile and unpretentious behaviour. What drew me to speaking with him was that I had heard about his serious talent as an illustrator. I was intrigued and asked if he would be kind enough to tell me more about it.

Bob spoke about his interest in all things drawing related, especially caricatures. However, he had other stories to share too. I was more than happy to listen. When he was finished, I have to be honest in stating that I was more than a little humbled, and highly impressed.

Bob was born in West Germany to a British military family. After postings all over Europe, his father was transferred back to the UK where Bob picked up a fondness for art. He credits his mother as a true source of inspiration. "She is an amazing artist. Her paintings could have sold for thousands of pounds but she remained true to herself, and never discussed her art with anyone else," Bob mused. "She would paint on a canvas and once the painting was completed, she would wipe it clean and reuse the same canvas to start on something new. My father and I managed to save a few pieces of her work for ourselves. Line drawings and things like that."

A recently retired detective for the British police, Bob honed his artistic abilities during his thirty years on the force. "I've always loved to draw, ever since I was young. My friends were usually asking me to do caricatures or illustrations as going-away presents or retirement gifts. Or even when something funny happened while we were working.
It was fine at first but then I realised how much of my time it was taking up. So I started charging them for it," he laughs.

Larger caricatures in full colour tend to take Bob around four to five weeks to complete. Small black and white drawings however can be finished within two to three hours depending on the content.
He stresses that he is not a portrait artist by any means but thoroughly enjoys caricature. "Caricature is generally better because you can draw a feature out of someone. A facial or physical trait. It makes it easier. More interesting."

Caricatures are not Bob's only speciality. "Realism, accurate portrayals of machinery and explanatory exploded view of parts. That's actually how I became serious about illustrations.The owner of a UK publication named Rotorworld contacted me and asked me to prepare some interesting graphics. Rotorworld is a magazine for remote control helicopter fans. I'm a fan as well. I had to come up with a detailed drawing that would make it easier for readers to understand the designs of certain parts, to make it less boring.
I showed the people at the magazine some of my other work and I was offered a regular slot as the resident cartoonist. And the rest is history."
His humorous drawings, aptly titled "Giggles by Bob Hartley" are a regular feature in  Rotorworld.

We then proceeded onto other topics. I was already aware that Bob had a serious passion for the outdoors and proceeded to ask him if he could spare any "really cool adventure stories", at the risk of sounding like a complete novice.
This is a man who is an admitted mountaineer and has scaled some seriously daunting peaks. Bjel Toubkal of the Atlas Mountains in North Africa, Denali or Mount McKinley in Alaska, Mont Blanc in France and of course Mount Kinabalu, which he has climbed thirteen times.

He speaks with warm tones about the 2002 Mont Blanc expedition in which he was a cameraman and support team member for his best friend, renowned mountaineer Tony Ward.
The latter had lost the use of both his kidneys several years prior and viewed this challenge as a way to raise funds and awareness for kidney research, treatment and organ donation.
"Tony needed a dialysis pack change every four hours but he managed to set a world record for the highest dialysis exchange at 4,000 metres above sea level. It was a climb that would normally take three days. It took us two weeks," remembers Bob. " Sir Ranulph Fiennes was really great and helped us by forwarding the video footage we had recorded. It appeared on British television."
Sir Fiennes is the first man to complete land treks to both the North and South Pole as well as The Antarctic. He is widely regarded as one of the best explorers in the world.

The world record for the highest dialysis transfer has since been reset by none other than Tony Ward himself during his 2004 climb of Mount Toubcal in North Africa. That record currently sits at 4150 metres above sea level.

 After pressing on for more stories, I found out just how serious Bob's love for nature is. He classifies himself as an "extreme canoeist" and was among the first group to ever paddle down Brunei's Sungai Temburong. While still in the UK he also set up and ran Kaboa for 6 years - a dedicated jungle training course which teaches expedition leaders to be rainforest aware. From this facility alone, he personally trained 250 leaders. Hence his nickname, Jungle Bob.

Bob has organised 13 trips for the World Challenge Expeditions, a programme that educates young adults through travel and by exploring a different range of countries around the world. "That is how I came to Sabah in the first place," states Bob, "And that's how I met my wife". 

Sue Chong-Hartley has a strong affinity for the jungle and this evident through her own reminiscing of forest trips and fantastic skills behind the camera. This talented yet modest lenswoman exhibits serious flair for animal and insect photography, arachnids being her favourite subject. A flip through her portfolio will have you agreeing that her work is serious gallery worthy material, to say the least.

Not to be left behind, Bob too is an avid photographer but quickly lets on with a grin that "Mrs. Hartley has a far better eye for photography than I do."