'Microcosm of innocence': Artist Rahim Baloch expresses pain on his canvas

The painter misses his father, depicting him as a flower and himself as a honeybee dependent on the flower

KARACHI:

Speaking about his father, the artist's voice cracks and his eyes fill with tears. "When I sit alone, I go back to those memories," he says. "It's like a pain. I used to paint that pain. Now I paint feathers to save myself from it."

Young artist Rahim Baloch misses his father. Depicting himself as a honeybee and his late father as jasmines and dandelions, his show at Chawkandi Art Gallery, titled 'Microcosm of Innocence', expresses the artist's sensitivities to targeted killings, violence, the APS attack and the Baloch missing persons.



"I relate the love of my parents and relatives to the jasmine flower," he tells The Express Tribune, adding that he depicts himself as a honeybee. "A honeybee's social life is similar to that of a human. I pursued a relation between the honeybee and the flower. If I am the honeybee, the love of my father is the flower."

He talks about the pain he felt when his father left the world. "I gave imagery to the idea," he says. "My show is against targeted killings and [other such issues]."

His works depict honeybees with flowers. An interesting characteristic of his gouache on wasli works is that bullet holes can be seen on the works. "I had bullets fired on my works," he explains. "I am expressing my ideas against targeted killings and violence." He further talks about the value of life. "I am trying to depict that even a small honeybee has a precious life," he says. "Everyone has the right to live. No one should be killed, even if it's a small honeybee."



Baloch feels strongly for those who die. "Those who leave this world, be they 10 people killed somewhere, it's not just the 10 people killed - attached to them are thousands of memories," he says.



According to the artist, he paints wings of honeybees to vent out his frustration. In one of his works, he has painted a wreath - the kind laid on graves - on a flag of Pakistan. It depicts his frustrations with the law and order situation of the country but also includes feathers to help him combat his frustration. "It breaks my suffocation," he says. "My country is very dear to me. But I have put a wreath [on the flag] because of the incidents that take place here."

The show will run till December 28.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 23^rd, 2015.