Art learning: IVS faculty makes a point with art show

Teachers of IVS display art at the annual faculty exhibition till October 5 .

KARACHI:

A point is the start of any art form to become what it is. The faculty at Indus Valley School (IVS) of Art and Architecture makes that point at their latest take on ‘point to point’ at IVS Gallery on Wednesday.

The art gurus, who impart creative skills to art undergrads at the IVS, put up their works for display at the in-house gallery and took their teaching out of the classrooms. The traditional once-a-year art show differs slightly from the previous ones as this time around curator, Hajra Haider, has segregated art works of faculty by their departments. This time, there was a theme - a point with a point, as well.

The artists-cum-faculty religiously followed the theme and made exclusive works for the exhibition. Each one had a different and unique style and most of the artwork had been more contemporary than traditional. “Initially we would not have themes,” said Haider, adding that the concept of themes was fairly recent. “It is good since everybody can indulge in their individual styles around the theme.”

For Mohammad Ali, an alumni and an emerging artist, a painting named ‘I woke out of a whirlpool’ illustrated a process of continuity. He specifically admired the digital print and oil paint work of Madiha Hyder, which was called ‘perfect crime - prepare’ and ‘perfect crime - execute’. The artist had designed newspapers’ pieces cluttered with various headlines on violence and crimes in the city, while a girl was throwing with her paintbrush a bucket of red paint.

Production art teacher Shaheedullah designed a digital print that portrayed a reproduction of original photographs through dots and alumni Samya Arif displayed her latest work for a music album cover, called ‘Sound. Science. Love’. She said her design was a collage from her trip to Nepal. “The fact that the musician had gone to Nepal himself helped as I used my photos to design the album cover,” she explained, excitedly.

“The works displayed tell how much the art has evolved as you can see that every artwork here is so contemporary,” said artist Amir Raza, who came as a visitor.

Most of these artworks had price tags but, for artist-cum-teacher Sohail Zuberi, his poster did not have a price. He kept a stack of his pink poster with Bulley Shah’s verse on it for anybody to pick up.

The exhibition carried a variety in the mediums the artists chose to work on, such as textile designs, photography, Adobe works and architecture. But they all made a point. For example, Sumaira Saeed’s Mughal groom was sitting on an elephant that had small cars on its body. It was a perfect display of how today traditional rides of ‘baraats’ have been replaced with expensive cars. Mohan Das, took the theme of point literally by actually drawing out an acrylic design of an eye on a triangle canvas.

The exhibition was also attended by the faculty of the National College of Arts, Lahore, who are visiting IVS to test students. Samia Salahuddin told The Express Tribune that, “This is a great way of bringing up the faculty’s art work for display and this is how students learn about exhibiting works along with other theoretical knowledge.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 20^th, 2013.