Apparitional experience: They show you what you can’t see

Group art show Masterpieces begins.

LAHORE:

A group art show titled Masterpieces kicked off at the Alhamra Arts Council on Monday.

National College of Arts (NCA) Principal Murtaza Jafri inaugurated the exhibition that will continue until May 18. More than 50 art pieces by 17 visual artists – all of them NCA graduates – are on display.

The artists are Amna Gul, Anila Khurshid, Fahim Tufail, Ghufrana Naqvi, Hira Mustafa, Kiran Salim, Masuma Ali, Mariam Hanif, Nida Ramazan, Nizan Dahri, Sophia Mairaj, Shaukat Ali, Sarah Yousaf, Romaisa Khan, Yasir Azeem, Wajahat Ali and Warda Bukhari.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Hanif said her work revolved around the apparitional visual experience of land, water and skyscape.

“These visual experiences become part of my memory. They gradually create their own language – a language of marks, dots, doodling with amalgamation of visuals, emotions and thoughts.”

She said she relied on her memory to create images from the visual experiences, using both objective and subjective approaches.

“I use oval and circle shape canvases to reflect their never-ending dialogue in my mind. I have painted different time-spans of the day and night… sometimes to create a single landscape that depicts different shades of passed moments and flux in my memory.”

Mustafa said her work was about books on art and artists.

“I have changed the size of books, given them a blur version and pixilated them the way I remember them,” Mustafa, also the curator of the show, said.

“I am also working on smaller books that look handy and pretty in a miniature form but at the same time they are difficult to read. I have added a number of books to my miniature book collection.”

Mairaj said her idea was to portray shadows of selected objects.

“Exaggerated, manipulated images create a dialogue with the viewer; these shadows become a medium to tell a story. Because of them the physical presence of an object loses its original form and the space it occupies becomes different and new.”

Tufail said his work was based on the analysis of behaviours of one’s surroundings, and inspiration from the text around.

“The text creates a narrative, like a horoscope that changes everyday. Overlapped and blurred images depict experiences of my life.”

Wajahat said, “All my artwork is, at its most fundamental level, about creating a sense of awe and wonder. My work revolves around political, social and personal issues. It is intentionally imbued with a strong mystical sense, and is suffused with symbolic content.”

Yousaf, said, “I am working with the idea of the fragile and crude inner self. For this I have chosen human dresses and clothing. Clothing represents a persona, a kind of camouflage which lets others know only what we want them to know about ourselves.” Salim said her work was about the visual experience of looking at things surrounding her. “My work caters to the images that offer an altered perception of the real.” Khurshid said, “I have tried to depict the reality of our society. Using mirror as a medium, I make the viewer confront and see self-distortion.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 13^th, 2014.