Eggceptional art

“The Travelling Egg” yolked at Rohtas Gallery.

ISLAMABAD:

It’s amazing what you can do with an egg: it can scramble; it can condition those desiccated, frizzy locks; it’ll be your personal muse, sunny-side up. The launch of “the Travelling Egg” exhibition at Islamabad’s Rohtas Gallery on May 11 yolked (excuse the pun) and revitalised the proverbial egg’s traditional etymology.

The seven artists featured are from the National College of Arts (NCA) in Rawalpindi. “Each artist is interpreting an ‘egg’ in their respective artworks,” said Natasha Iqbal, Rohtas Gallery’s curator. The artists have used a variety of mediums to represent their central image: modestly priced wood carvings, ceramic sculptures, etchings, mixed media on paper, digital prints, collage on board and collagraphs dominating the walls and the floor.

As guests walked in, they were greeted with a fertile and somewhat pre-historic landscape, enchanting yet terrifying, in which giant ceramic eggs lay on the floor, cracked open, while their smaller counterparts nested the walls — local artwork of Jurassic proportions.

“We were sitting together at work, laughing about eggs and what they mean to us,” said Nadia Hussain, Head of the Fine Arts department at NCA, “and, if I can be totally honest, I immediately thought of my own eggs and I figured I’d write something about my eggs and my body, which I used as drawing and art for this exhibition.”  Hussain’s text-heavy work equates the egg with femininity [not exclusively, she reminds] and with the cycle of reproduction. She chose to present the image in a personal way, boldly canvassing her own body, translating her ‘eggs’ into text.

Sophiya Khwaja’s “Brittle Security” (mixed media on paper) stood out for its political and social relevance: “I wanted to focus on the egg shell and how brittle it is. I was thinking of security issues, the growing walls around the city and barbed-wire.” Khwaja’s work resonates with Islamabad’s residents, who’ve been forced to acclimate themselves to the tiresome and ever-increasing security threat; the rise of blockades and barriers, psychological as much as physical. Her eggs are grenades; weapons of mass destruction; they evoke Mikhail Bulgakov’s science-fiction Fatal Eggs; they are les oeufs du mal (the eggs of evil), full of social malaise.

“I think the work is really interesting and pertinent to everything around us,” said Yasir, a guest, admiring a piece by Sophiya Khwaja.

Rabia Khalid’s ceramic eggs, many of them cracked, were a key attraction: the intricate eggs looked like they belonged to a species of aesthetically aware dinosaurs. They are potent, glossy and mysterious; viewers may ponder their contents and what they hatched.

Her analysis elucidated a traditional interpretation — egg as a channel for life and the ‘cracked’ egg as a representation of life’s progression and its trials. “Many of my eggs are either cracked or peeled, representing the process of life, the mystery of life, the journey and the many scars and memories we carry with us,” said Khalid.

The appealing art works are a testament of creative potential in the country; the artists present were equally engaging and chatty, explaining their respective visions to gallery viewers.

“The Travelling Egg” exhibition is set to continue till May 21.



Published in The Express Tribune, May 15^th, 2011.