Five young artists depict their journeys through art

KARACHI: The works of five young artists, who are all fresh graduates, revealing both the complexity of their relationship with art as well as the methodic approach they adopt while depicting a concept, are being showcased at Sanat Gallery

The exhibition, titled ‘Agogic Accent’, endeavours to depict how art is a medium of self-expression for some artists while for others it is more of a problem solving technique.

Artists Anum Ashraf, Raazia Batool and Maryam Baniasadi have adopted different mediums and imagery to express their innermost selves and personalities. Ashraf’s uses watercolorus to express coldness and wilderness around gentle environments, while Baniasadi’s miniature paintings are although polar opposite in terms of technique and use of colours, nevertheless they are expressions of themselves as well as what goes around her.



“I’ve chosen miniature painting because I could relate it to myself. It is a medium and style that is used in both Iran and Pakistan, so I wanted to relate both cultures through my medium and style of painting. Besides, I was always fascinated with detailing,” said Baniasadi in the artist’s statement.

While Baniasadi took inspiration from Iran, Batool used Iranian ink and gouache to formulate, what seems like, broken letters and works; consolidated into rock form or spread out onto black surfaces, these appear as indecipherable inscriptions.

According to the artist, these show intense moments in her life and her journey of overcoming then. “I had been broken in some way, but then I adjusted to jot myself down once again for some new beginning,” reads her statement

According to Muhammad Zeeshan, an artist and curator of the show, the reason behind the choice of the artists was to see the practice of coherency among them. “For example, both Raazia and Anum depict landscapes, while Raazia’s work had an element of abstraction to it,” he said.



Artist Mir Dostak’s showcases x-rays of body on gouache on wasli, with a bullet penetrating in one while a knife on the brink of entering above the leg area. In others, there are remains of blisters and injuries that appear to be transcending beyond the cover of clothes, perhaps signifying that some wounds cut deeper than the skin.

Among all, artist Affan Baghpati’s creations appear to be the most wild and abstract at the same time. A parrot perched on a lota through the technique of taxidermy and a goat’s head resting on the side of Surahi (earthen pitcher), Baghpati’s craft is both different from the rest as well as perhaps very private to the artist.

“Both artists have depicted bodies on very different levels,” opined Zeeshan, about the work of Dostak and Baghpati. He also said that the aim behind the exercise was to see how mature the works of the budding artists were when it came to representing their surroundings.

The exhibition will continue till May 20.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 16^th, 2016.