Four women, four visions
‘In Between Spaces’, is an ode to young womanhood and an exploration of that journey. The exhibition, hosted at the Art Chowk Gallery in Karachi, is curated by a fresh graduate from Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Rida Solangi, and features her work alongside three other artists, Abeeha Hussain, Alizeh Baqai and Haya Faruqui.
Their collection of work transports the viewer into a dimension of stillness as you walk into the room and hear gears at work in Hussain’s mechanical sculptures. As you slide in the door on the wall next to you, a strange sight — something straight out of a classroom — appears. A green soft-board is hung with three blueprints of each of Hussain’s sculptural works. These drawings break down the structure of each of her unique machinery but right below are pages from her sketchbook tracing the thoughts and events that led to each of the conception of each of the artefacts.
Hussain’s work is derived from her daily logs from her undergraduate days. Beneath these logs are deep-rooted beliefs of her upbringing, her Shia roots and her fascination with numerology. The first sculpture is sort of a clockwork recording of a day when an ink pot spilt in her stationery pouch twice! This insignificant moment rings a bell with the person inside anyone, the person who sulks at small inconveniences and lets them dictate feelings for the day.
Her next work is deeply personal, one that reflects on the day her father passed away. The immense moment of grief is recorded in that exact minute on a small digital timer as it stands unchanging, while a roll of paper is moving rapidly as a pen marks the still heartbeat of her beloved father. This would speak to the mature side of a person, who carries tragedy and grief with grace, even when all one hopes is for time to stand still, but the grand movements of the universe stop for none.
The last sculpture by Hussain brings out the youthful spirit in a person — finding little joys in places that exist beyond time, in little pockets of stillness and calm. Her work is about the beach, truly a magical place for all those who dwell in the loud, crazy Karachi.
Rida Solangi’s collection of work is mainly on two different themes. Her first body of work is a large oil painting depicting friends having a good time in an unknown place. For Solangi, these moments are the little in-betweens of everyday madness when the monotony of daily life breaks as you surround yourself with love and friendship. This particular painting gives an outsider’s perspective on her life and friends, yet it hits close to home as it can transport anyone to their memories with friends and time just passes by like a stranger no one has ever known.
Solangi’s next body of work is a more intimate view into her pockets of stillness when she focuses on fleeting moments of youth shown through her Gen-Z perspective symbolised through blue jeans and peace signs among other elements. These moments invite the viewer to also reflect on their own pockets of stillness.
Baqai’s work on the surface may seem to be superficial but underneath its object-in-focus, it is deeply personal and reflective. The object-in-focus here is Baqai’s wardrobe and obsession with clothes. She has meticulously documented her extensive wardrobe finding her way through her fancy dress down to her daily white socks to inner wear.
This work is particularly thought-provoking because the artist lays bare first and foremost their privilege of being able to afford so many clothes. This along with the fact that clothes mean so much to her is an interesting insight into the life of a young woman, whose life revolves around clothing as a means of expression. This sentiment is something all girls and women can relate to, where in a society so obsessed with praising our silences and compromises, it does not tolerate unkempt appearances. A woman must be well-dressed for people around her to know that she belongs to a well-respected background. It will not matter if she has accomplishments of her own because only red lipstick can pull a man. In such societies, some young girls use this model of control for their benefit where they dress well to feel confident in a world that seems to have been built around tearing women down.
Baqai’s documentation of her wardrobe beautifully comes together with her expertise in printmaking and miniature painting as each canvas becomes a window of insight into her personal space that she has so bravely yet certainly reluctantly opened up for the world to see.
Haya Faruqui, a Pakistani student living in Canada, has documented her life away from home. Her work is a series of photographs called “Presence of Absence”. Faruqi’s work captures a sort of paranormal emptiness of disassociation from one’s life. The photographs depict mundane activities yet there's no one doing them, but there is a form and a shadow that continues on. Her work speaks of this place of longing for home and homeland, yet being so far away from it in this limbo space between home and someplace better for the sake of survival that all diaspora must experience. As a young woman, this is a lonely space and one fills it with small daily activities as time seems to move at an alarmingly slow pace, as one counts months, maybe years, until they are embraced again by the warmth of a childhood bed.
Lulu Lokhandwala is a visual artist and researcher. You can follow her work on Instagram at @luluwa.lokhandwala
All facts and information are the sole responsibility of the writer