Artists come together to raise funds for flood relief

An exhibition of artworks by over 100 artists to raise funds for flood victims opened at Alhamra Art Gallery.

LAHORE: Sanjh, literally sharing but in context an exhibition of artworks by over 100 artists to raise funds for the flood victims, opened at Alhamra Art Gallery on Saturday.

Organised by RetroArts in collaboration with Danka and some visual artists, the show attracted a large number of enthusiasts from across the city. The works displayed at the exhibition are as diverse as they are numerous. They include paintings, miniatures, sculptures, photographs, calligraphy and digital prints. The exhibiting artists, senior as well as young, have marked down the prices by 50 percent and donated the works to raise funds for flood relief.

Prof Salima Hashmi, the former National College of Arts (NCA) principal, said she was particularly delighted to see the work of the younger artists. For her, she said, the most striking feature of the exhibition was the fearlessness of expression. “This work is bubbling with ideas. The young artists are exploring new mediums… I am very satisfied... The work is experimental but also very meditative and purposeful. It is not experimental for the sake of experimenting,” she said.

On the other hand, Hashmi said, while the work carried a social message, it wasn’t just the message. “Work that is message often becomes boring. The work displayed here is personal despite the social message.” She said that the show was a ray of hope in more than one sense. The young artists had stepped forward to acknowledge their responsibility and do their due. “They must have donated for the flood victims earlier too but donating art pieces shows a commitment to the cause at another level,” she maintained.

Prof Hashmi said the flood seemed to have brought the artist community closer together. “The calamity is definitely going to have its impact on the work as well. I remember my father, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, wrote a poem on a girl found all be herself on a roof in a flood hit area in 1972,” she said.

Prof Saeed Akhtar praised the organisers for their effort.

Artist Asad Hayee said that it was wonderful to see the artist responding to the call so eagerly and so quickly. “Several groups from NCA have visited and are visiting the flood hit areas to help the victims. This is definitely going to figure in their future work,” he said. He said he expected the show to help raise at least Rs1 million – Rs1.4 million if the exhibition sold out.

Zahra Mirza, one of the organisers, said the core team for Sanjh had come together as a result of some artist friends sharing a sense of urgency about “doing something”. Within days of posting a call for artists to help raise funds, she said, the team was overwhelmed with the response, with more than 100 artists donating artworks and agreeing not only to allow the organisers to heavily cut the prices but also to donate 100 percent of the proceeds to the cause. “No questions asked.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 5^th, 2010.