Thesis exhibition: Works on human expressions, chaos and femininity on display

PU graduate carves out human faces to show responses to different situations.

LAHORE: Human expressions and sentiments, femininity, chaos and disease were the themes of the works of six Punjab University Fine Arts graduates displayed at Nairang Gallery.

Warda Imtiaz said she had carved out human faces and lips with multiple expressions to portray different responses to different situations.

She said most of these, made by using plaster of Paris, were an attempt to reflect her own responses to different situations.

“Some of the faces reflect panic and stress to show the experience I underwent before my thesis went on display in December,” she said.

‘Scream’, ‘Moods’, ‘Suffocation’ and ‘Bite’ were the titles of her other works. These and an untitled piece by Imtiaz showing a bunch of leaves were among the most praised works at the exhibit on Sunday.

Tooba Ramay, 23, said she had used traffic light colours to depict ‘confusion, attitudes and responses’ in one of her paintings.

“The green, red and yellow coloured circles show positive, neutral and negative frames of mind,” she said.

Ramay said she had decided to use traffic colours on witnessing chaos on the roads. “We can see all kinds of people and all sorts of moods in the traffic,” she said.

In another work, she said, she had given a broken glass effect through pencil lines to portray unpredictability of mood.

Ameena Kausar said she had used nuts and nails in her painting to show the affect of asthma on the human body.

“I have incorporated nails in veins and tubes of the respiratory system to show pain,” she said.

Kausar, herself an asthma patient, said she had decided to use the nuts after learning about some asthmatics that were allergic to nuts.

“I have tried to show the adverse effects of the disease on the patients,” she said. Most of her paintings used Gouach on Wasli (a miniature technique involving water paints).

Kiran Saleem has painted different hair styles like braids and pinned-up hair on canvas to portray femininity. Six of her paintings are on display.

Quddus Mirza, an art critic and a teacher at the National College of Arts, said he liked Saleem’s use of hair as a symbol of femininity.

Muneera Khan’s works are based on themes of self-obsession and introversion. She has used mixed media such as printing on canvas and thumb and finger prints.

She said her technique was inspired by the works of Erno Rubik, a Hungarian architect known for his mechanical puzzles particularly the Rubik’s Cube.

She said she had made a circle with several tangents to show an introvert’s response to social occasions. “They try to remain composed and avoid deviations from their usual behaviour,” she said.

The exhibit opened on June 2 and will run until June 9. It was inaugurated by Rahat Naveed Masood, principal of PU’s Fine Arts Department.

The paintings are priced between Rs15,000 and Rs35,000.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2012.