Not too cool for school : Buyers snap up Indus Valley faculty work
Some 25 teachers representing all the school’s departments contribute 53 art pieces.
KARACHI:
The Indus Valley School’s (IVS) sixth faculty show opened on Wednesday, barely 15 days after they hosted a colossal tribute honouring their co-worker Ussman Ghauri who recently passed away.
And because much of their work went to the tribute, there were less than half the usual number of works to go on display. The purpose of the show, as always, was to inspire the students.
The show was generally well-received, and by the end of the second day, 25 per cent of the work was sold. “The truck art with the Karachi University emblem was very pretty,” an art enthusiast told The Express Tribune. “There were the occasional flashes of brilliance and the usual people, such as Athar Jamal who just can’t go wrong.”
Rabia Shoaib’s ‘Ishq’, an acrylic on canvas worth Rs45,000, was the most expensive piece on display. Shoaib describes her work by quoting Dudley Clendinen and Melody Beattie. “She realised as a girl of eight, that if she sat down and wrote her stories, she could escape the parts of life she didn’t like,” reads her artist statement, “embroider the parts she did and thus control the life she had.” Her moral - “live your life from your heart, and share from your heart; your story will touch people’s souls.”
A glass box housing a small pile of newspapers suspended from the ceiling was Tazeen Hussain’s untitled creation that challenged the line between fact, heresy and just plain fiction. “The connection between kahani (story) and news is quite old. Although, due to completely different reasons. Storytelling has become synonymous with news, and not in the most complimentary way.”
Photography professor Farah Mahbub had taken her students all the way to Jordan which is where she shot her ‘Jordan-Baptism Site’ series which was very well received. Surraiya Khalid’s layered pictures were also of the same area - she focuses on noon, dawn and daybreak.
‘Before and After’ posters are the whole marketing strategy for infomercials and beauty products. Sumaira Tazeen investigates these posters in her digital miniature prints with photo manipulation on archival photographic paper inspired by Mughal portraits.
“It is a discourse within oneself about the irrationalities of life, which we have created and have become criterias of judgment in our daily lives,” she says in her artist statement. “I have mirrored myself in two opposite figures by making them thin and obese. In most of the cases dealing with women in our society physical appearance takes over the spiritual beauty.”
‘The painted jackal’ by Qazi Fazle Azeem was a vibrant digital painting of a jackal with a peacock’s tail. His work is about conformity. The jackal represents “the reality inside” and “the masks people wear”. “It is an analogy,” he explains, “inspired by the story of the same name, published hundreds of years ago by Sufi scholar Jalaluddin Rumi in his epic Masnavi.”
Nurayah Sheikh Nabi’s ‘Insidious’ and Amean J’s ‘Identical triplets’ were hung side by side. While Sheikh’s black and white etching on Somerset was thought-provoking, Amean J’s experimentation with printing on mirrors was eye-catching. His prints were a continuation of his work on ‘Family’ previously displayed at the VM Gallery.
The three boys in J’s prints are all football enthusiasts wearing Karachi United jerseys. “They play for the KU Football Club,” said J, praising the efforts of the club. “KU is actively using football’s popularity in underprivileged areas to engage children and give them a chance to a better life by combining football training and education.”
The show is up for a month, until June 25.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 27th, 2011.
The Indus Valley School’s (IVS) sixth faculty show opened on Wednesday, barely 15 days after they hosted a colossal tribute honouring their co-worker Ussman Ghauri who recently passed away.
And because much of their work went to the tribute, there were less than half the usual number of works to go on display. The purpose of the show, as always, was to inspire the students.
The show was generally well-received, and by the end of the second day, 25 per cent of the work was sold. “The truck art with the Karachi University emblem was very pretty,” an art enthusiast told The Express Tribune. “There were the occasional flashes of brilliance and the usual people, such as Athar Jamal who just can’t go wrong.”
Rabia Shoaib’s ‘Ishq’, an acrylic on canvas worth Rs45,000, was the most expensive piece on display. Shoaib describes her work by quoting Dudley Clendinen and Melody Beattie. “She realised as a girl of eight, that if she sat down and wrote her stories, she could escape the parts of life she didn’t like,” reads her artist statement, “embroider the parts she did and thus control the life she had.” Her moral - “live your life from your heart, and share from your heart; your story will touch people’s souls.”
A glass box housing a small pile of newspapers suspended from the ceiling was Tazeen Hussain’s untitled creation that challenged the line between fact, heresy and just plain fiction. “The connection between kahani (story) and news is quite old. Although, due to completely different reasons. Storytelling has become synonymous with news, and not in the most complimentary way.”
Photography professor Farah Mahbub had taken her students all the way to Jordan which is where she shot her ‘Jordan-Baptism Site’ series which was very well received. Surraiya Khalid’s layered pictures were also of the same area - she focuses on noon, dawn and daybreak.
‘Before and After’ posters are the whole marketing strategy for infomercials and beauty products. Sumaira Tazeen investigates these posters in her digital miniature prints with photo manipulation on archival photographic paper inspired by Mughal portraits.
“It is a discourse within oneself about the irrationalities of life, which we have created and have become criterias of judgment in our daily lives,” she says in her artist statement. “I have mirrored myself in two opposite figures by making them thin and obese. In most of the cases dealing with women in our society physical appearance takes over the spiritual beauty.”
‘The painted jackal’ by Qazi Fazle Azeem was a vibrant digital painting of a jackal with a peacock’s tail. His work is about conformity. The jackal represents “the reality inside” and “the masks people wear”. “It is an analogy,” he explains, “inspired by the story of the same name, published hundreds of years ago by Sufi scholar Jalaluddin Rumi in his epic Masnavi.”
Nurayah Sheikh Nabi’s ‘Insidious’ and Amean J’s ‘Identical triplets’ were hung side by side. While Sheikh’s black and white etching on Somerset was thought-provoking, Amean J’s experimentation with printing on mirrors was eye-catching. His prints were a continuation of his work on ‘Family’ previously displayed at the VM Gallery.
The three boys in J’s prints are all football enthusiasts wearing Karachi United jerseys. “They play for the KU Football Club,” said J, praising the efforts of the club. “KU is actively using football’s popularity in underprivileged areas to engage children and give them a chance to a better life by combining football training and education.”
The show is up for a month, until June 25.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 27th, 2011.