Group exhibition: Capturing something of everything

Artists showcase a mix of ideas through drawings and sculptures.

ISLAMABAD:

Anyone who follows contemporary art, is in for a visual treat. An exhibition featuring drawings and sculptures, opened at Satrang Gallery, Serena Hotel on Tuesday. Titled “Or something like it”, the exhibition introduced seven artists and their diverse themes.

“The showcase reexamines a basic art form, exploring the power and control of an artist while toying with the idea of artistic limitations through medium,” Zahra Khan, the gallery curator, said.

The artists create personal, alternate universes viewed through unique lenses in order to analyse aspects of life, human relationships, gender inequalities and technological advancements. The artists are: Maria Khan, Suleman Aqeel Khilji, Amra Khan, Nazir Hunzai, Zara Asgher, Waqas Anees and Saud Baloch.

Maria and Suleman explore distorted reality and parallel universes. There is harmony in the work of both artists: as Maria’s characters could easily exist in the altered reality that is present in Suleman’s work.



One of his large pieces outlines the search for perfect light, showing an idle man in a gloomy dark world, reflecting white light around him. “I have depicted myself as the idle man, the painting is mostly from screen memory, maybe a scene in a movie or a paragraph in a book. I don’t really know as I painted on impulse,” he said.

On the other hand, the works of Zara and Nazir are more polarised. Zara with her cloth-covered individuals, concentrates on folds and layers.

Meanwhile, Nazir creates sculptures and drawings out of found objects. “I have focused on the relationship between humans and objects, we tend to become attached to certain objects around us, in turn leaving human residue on them. Hence my objects become slightly human and take on mortal forms,” Nazir said, while pointing towards an upturned shoe that exuded an eerie, humanoid vibe.



Amra, Waqas, and Saud represent control and its direct opposite. Amra concentrates on gender by depicting human conflict, portraying subversive postures and sexual identity as she investigates unexpressed sentiments. “The conflict is always within the mind, within the body. The only thing keeping it in control and holding it all together, is the outline, the outer skin, the persona we stage for others,” she said.

Waqas explores limits to man’s strength and control with drawings of ships on seas, engulfed in winds and storms, while Saud’s pieces portray erosion of culture and identities. His drawings and sculptures work on multiple levels by alternately portraying the collective and the individual.

“I am interested in exploring natural symbolism. I believe that the material world can speak with grace to us about matters of contemporary concern,” Saud said. The exhibition will continue till the end of the month.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 13^th, 2013.