Liberated art : While serving time, inmates pick up a paintbrush to reflect on their lives

The exhibition by students of the Central Prison Fine Art School will run till March 28.

KARACHI: Art knows no boundaries and inmates of the Central Jail Karachi proved on Thursday that inspiration can dawn on an artist even when cooped up in a prison cell. 

A hundred pieces of paintings illustrating artistic skills of 10 senior students of the Central Prison Fine Art School were part of the exhibition, Impressionistic Art, which opened at the Alliance Francaise de Karachi.

Faraz Ahmed, an intermediate student who was convicted on the charges of dacoity and released after completing his term, explained how his work was an autobiography of his life. “I have tried to channel my younger years when my mother would try to stop me from staying outside home unnecessarily,” said Ahmed, while narrating how he went to jail and how the sentence changed his life. “My time in prison moved me towards learning art. I had enough time and space in my mind to think and come up with ideas that I could put on a canvas - my teacher in the prison helped me utilise my ideas and capabilities.”

Ahmed’s mother Farah could not control her happiness as tears gathered in her eyes when an art enthusiast praised her son and his work. “I never gave up on him and continued to visit the jail to meet him, even when everyone said that he will become a ‘bigger’ criminal in jail,” she said. “But I am grateful to the people in prisons who helped Ahmed become a better person.”

Reflections through a paint brush

Syed Jawad Ali Shirazi, who has been imprisoned for the last four years on murder charges, tried to portray time and space through his paintings by replacing clocks in place of human faces - conveying his idea that people try to change themselves with time.



Senior student Kazim Raza’s work in cubism was received well among the visitors. “In prison, the frustration levels are high but art has the ability to give life to a man who has lost all hope,” said Mir Askari, a young artist visiting the exhibition. “It offers them an outlet to express their emotions, feelings and wishes that rise and die behind the prison walls.” Another inmate, who was in jail for kidnapping for murder and ransom, Hasnain Raza, however, chose to focus his work on different roles of a woman in the society. “They [women] are mostly seen as week and vulnerable.”

Inspector General Prisons Nusrat Mangan while taking to The Express Tribune said that the exhibition was the 8th one since the school started in 2007. “No one is a criminal if you provide them a chance for improvement.” The school’s first exhibition was in 2009, exhibiting for the first time in Pakistan work by prisoners. Mangan said that out of the released students, many have pursued careers as artists and are still in touch with their alma mater.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 16^th, 2013.