Sculpture workshop: Crafting ‘labours of love’

Five-day sculpture workshop concludes at PNCA.

ISLAMABAD:

Saturday marked the conclusion of the five-day sculpture workshop held primarily at the PNCA’s outdoor sculpture courtyard. The participants, also awarded certificates, flaunted their “labours-of-love” crafted by kneading clay under hours of blazing heat.

The workshop’s first day largely focused on briefing college students and young artists on the basics of sculpture making, its history, materials, tools and methods. Participants were also asked to sketch so workshop facilitators could gauge their drawing potential.

The second day imparted hands-on experience as participants could be seen moulding and sculpting shapeless masses of clay to match what they had envisioned. Sajjad Akram, Ayub Wali and Imran Hunzai could be seen flitting about the courtyard, imparting their experience and expertise to workshop students eager to learn or refresh their sculpting skills.

“The workshop is for anyone who wants to work in 3D and get information on treatment and methods of sculpture making,” explained Akram, who teaches sculpture at Fatima Jinnah University and draws inspiration from iconic sculptors like Michelangelo. “We have a lot of students from ICG as well as photographers and painters,” he added.

“We received good response from the kids as they did not know about the form and found the training very useful,” said Imran Hunzai as he assisted a workshop participant, Nusrat Ji, while she worked on making a “bust”.

Students didn’t seem to mind the blazing heat and were engrossed in their work, stopping occasionally to wipe their brows.

“I’ve done this before in college,” said Nusrat, “and I’m learning from the new generation. This is a great experience, especially since bust-making methods have changed over the years.”

Another participant, Hajira, busy making a relief, said, “This is my first time sculpting and I’ve really learned a lot.” True enough, Hajira’s work demonstrated ability and understanding; the workshop can be declared successful.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 22^nd, 2011.