Ingenuity at its best

BNU’s 2011 thesis exhibit displayed meticulous skill and creativity.

LAHORE:

Since its inception, the Beaconhouse National University (BNU) has had the misfortune of being perceived as a school, where malingering adolescents hang out and party. Therefore the thesis presentation of BNU’s 2011 class, which certainly displayed ingenuity and craftsmanship at its best, certainly came as a pleasant surprise. Whether it was fine art, jewelry, photography or textile, each exhibit’s meticulous skill and innovative design wowed onlookers. “We have the best faculty and it’s all due to their efforts,” said the principal Salima Hashmi, while still candidly admitting that National College of Arts (NCA) remains the hub of the country’s most talented art students.

The students’ art work on display can be lumped into two categories — commercially viable pieces and conceptual art in the form of artistic installations. The corpus of art with popular appeal included innovations in simple products of everyday use: Munazzah Kulsoom’s beautiful prayer rugs incorporating Picasso’s cubism paired with traditional motifs, Mehwish Khan’s newer model of the charpoy incorporating Turkish bokcja and Zunera Raza’s hand crafted macramé hammocks. Komal Ehsan’s work was the only fashion project, exhibiting a mythical superhero studded with conical origami shapes. Drawing inspiration from this pollution-obliterating incredible “green” crusader, Ehsan had created a synthetic origami jacket and a dress constructed entirely from conical hand bags. The ingenuity and finishing of the young artist’s were simply marvelous.

Graduating students like Hina Anwar, Tayyaba, and Momina Nasim used abstraction to express their artistic vision. Anwar crafted a tunnel called the dark muse to depict her weaving techniques while Tayyaba created a sponge city. And Nasim’s installation illustrated the paradoxical attributes of a women’s fragility and strength, by juxtaposing fish wire and thread woven together.

There were other beautiful and creative projects on display which are worth a mention: Saima Abaidullah exquisite lamps created from common pins, Waqar Ali’s eccentrically fun jugnu ties and wall installations, Ayesha Shafiq’s lovely mosaic of embroidery, paint, leather and transparency wall dividers, Aiza Shiekh’s furnitures inspired by coffee froth and Anum Javed’s mood uplifting space inspired from ‘Alice in Wonderland’.

The exciting exhibits managed to attract quite a few spectators. Fahad Husayn, the creative fashion designer and former students of BNU, had invited all his fashionista friends to the event. Husayn, who was also the thesis counselor for graduates in the textile department, enthusiastically gave guided tour of the projects displayed at his alma mater.

“Our students are so well equipped. They have access  something as basic as a quilt, to creative interior design solutions and concepts,” the designer explained proudly.

Regarding his own experience at BNU, the young designer said: “We were the first -batch of the textile department at BNU and we had immense creative freedom to do what we want, to use whatever material we wish to.”

Kiran Khan, the head of the textile department at BNU echoed a similar sentiment about the university’s superior emphasis on artistic freedom and originality. “Indus Valley in Karachi has always held a very traditional focus in their work, which is great too but we need to move beyond. The NCA is very product oriented and students are advised that their work must be sellable foremost,” explained Khan.

“I wanted my students to be thinkers, irrespective of whether they were artists or craftsman. I wanted them to make a contribution to the world through design. And not just textiles but use plastics and new materials.”

This year’s thesis presentation shows that BNU students are capable of being just as original and creative as their counterparts in more established art and design schools, like Pakistan Institute of Fashion Design. And just like the way textile designers are able to highlight their work at myriad fashion weeks, these promising debutantes at BNU should be given an avenue for showcasing their work at creative events and presentations.



Published in The Express Tribune, June 5^th, 2011.