Group show: The brave and the bold

Artist deliberately eschews painting faces

LAHORE: The Brave and the Bold—a group show featuring the work of three artists—commenced on Friday at Taseer Art Gallery.

National College of Arts (NCA) graduate Hamid Ali said his work explored the contradictory relationship of words and images. He said words and images were an inextricable part of communication. Ali said one without the other rendered them ambiguous. “Images, unlike visuals, cannot be translated though words have the power to manipulate them to an extent,” he said. Ali said he had looked into notions pertaining content generation in his work. In this case, he said, it entailed examining images and words to deduce meanings and contexts.

Naira Mushtaq said her work had been inspired by obscure family photographs. She said she had explored the idea of how subjective memories tend to overwrite imagery using the mediums of gel transfer and oil on board. “My visuals feature family photographs. They tend to be similar everywhere,” Mushtaq said. She said she desisted from painting faces in her work as she wanted her work to be “inclusive.” This, Mushtaq said, allowed those viewing her work to see themselves in her work.

Sanie Shoaib Bokhari said she had worked with a variety of materials employing cardboard primarily. She said she liked to play with surfaces such as glass which gave her work an additional layer. Bokhari said the technique made her paintings appear to be three-dimensional.

“I strive to subtly bring things into the limelight that have been somewhat spurned by the society,” the artist said. She said using intimate imagery such as the view from a restroom or personal notes covered with another layer allowed her to somewhat obscure them while permitting an insight or two on closer inspection. “The idea stems partly from the experience of being a woman in Pakistani society where one is supposed to remain covered,” Bokhari said.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 29^th, 2016.