LAHORE: An exhibition commenting on the state of miniature painting and exploring the visual impact of words opened at the Rohtas 2 art gallery in Model Town on Tuesday.
Artist Ayesha Jatoi uses red text on white walls to tell a story about miniature art in the form of a fairy tale. “Once upon a time … in a land not so far, far away … there lived a girl called Miniature Painting.” Thus starts the story in Mirror Mirror, the title of the exhibition. “I’m a miniature painter and I love this medium of work,” said Jatoi. “I have put my feelings in my work, how I feel about miniature painting and the problems it is facing.”
She said she hoped to explore the visual impact that words create and not just their meaning. “The text coupled with the visuals of miniature painting should make a visual treat which has both wisdom and beauty,” she said.
As a holder of bachelors degrees in both English literature and miniature painting and a masters degree in visual arts (the latter two from the National College of Arts), Jatoi is uniquely placed to explore this theme.
The only ‘prop’ at the exhibition was an encyclopaedia, opened to the page with the definition of miniature, but painted and written over in Jatoi’s own handwriting.
“The word ‘miniature’ is derived from the Latin word ‘minium’, which means red lead, so I chose this colour,” she said. “A miniature should have text in it. There used to be no concept of a miniature without text and the initial letters of the manuscripts were written in red.”
The story of the girl called Miniatures Painting continues. “She was a delicate yet seductive girl… not just beautiful but an accomplished storyteller (A magic realist).
“But one day her father, fearing her charms, locked her up in the basement of their home with only facilities of cable TV. At first she wept and wept … then she danced to the tunes of mtv and bollypop … and read the book.
And finally she began to think about beauty and intellect … which did she love more?
“She debated it endlessly with the mirror till she felt faint, the frail thing that she was … But, alas, now there was no one around to even find this endearing … She missed being loved and sought after … once lively, and vibrant, her colour faded and as the year passed, the lustre left her. She was sad and lonely and her imagination was failing her…”
Salima Hashmi, art critic and teacher, praised the work. “It took me back to the 60s when there was this concrete poetry movement, when we learnt the relation between how words look and what they mean,” she said.
The exhibition will continue till October 30.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 20th, 2010.
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