Group exhibition: ‘My work highlights a woman’s life’

LAHORE:

“My paintings portray the political situation of Pakistan…how leaders play with people’s feelings,” said Zoha Saleem, whose work went on display at a group exhibition of paintings by eleven artists here at the Ejaz Art Gallery on Tuesday.

Saleem said she used newspapers and artificial flowers in her paintings to show that promises of politicians meant nothing.

“My work is about compromises and conflicts within…between idea innate and the idea implanted,” said artist Yasir Waqas. He said his work is about the “elderly figure, the nurturer, who tends to give best guidance and expects the minor to follow.

Waqas said, “Things don’t come out as planned…so I layered my painting with more meaning by presenting them in a story – a narrative of two extremely different characters.”

Ramzan Ali Jafri said that he had used bandages in his gouache on wasli paintings to depict a wave of terrorism in the country.

Jafri said, “A father killed in a targeted attack…youths killed in a bomb blast… I’ve depicted this…through different techniques.”

Artist Amna Manzoor said her work explored identity, training, and conditioning.



Manzoor said her paintings showed “how we all wear masks and hide behind them.”

“The second phase of my work depicts my personal experiences. How the society shaped me… the society holds an image of a woman and I have been brought up and conditioned to become that kind of woman,” she said.

“My work also highlights the chapters in a woman’s life which are never ending,” said Artist Areej Rana.

Rana said her work was about the women of the day…still shackled by male dominance and societal pressures.

“Unfortunately, a woman still needs a male barrister to plead her case…a male offspring retains the legacy and carries it,” she added.

Artists Kausar Iqbal, M Qasim, Syed Shah Abdullah Alame, Usman Alvi, Muhammad Shahid and Ejaz Saeed also displayed their work. Cartoonist Javed Iqbal and artist Saeed Akhtar were also present on the occasion.

The exhibition will go on till June 11.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 6^th, 2013.