Threads, knots and twists: Attempt to revive the dying art of Pattoli

Solo exhibition of 38 paintings by Wardah Bukhari continues until 19th.

LAHORE:

An exhibition of paintings titled Metaphors by Wardah Naeem Bukhari continues at Hamail Art Gallery.

Thirty-eight paintings made using water colour, gold leaf, silver leaf and mixed media are on display.

Iranian Cultural Centre Director General Akbar Barkurdari inaugurated the show on Monday that would continue until June 19.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, Bukhari, said, “Jewellery is the focus of my interest. It inspired me to depict the dying tradition of Pattoli craft (decorated thread work) in an innovative style.”

She said threads, ropes and their knots, twists and ties had always inspired her.

“The inner structure of our body reminds me of the same knots, twists and turns that are present in the jewellery. I think of veins, arteries, and organs inside our body and translate them into threads and ropes used in jewellery-making to create a sculptural installation.” Aasim Akhtar, an artist, praised Bukhari for taking what he said a gigantic leap in her work.



“Rather than forsaking her earlier engagement with the traditional craft of jewellery-making as practiced by the rural womenfolk in Multan, she has found a contemporary context to translate that practice into a personal idiom… Xeroxed, drawn or painted images of human anatomy and physiognomy coupled with organic configuration fashioned out of wire, yarn, thread, metal wire either substituting or standing in for human parts, constitute her new aesthetic, formal and conceptual vocabulary,” Akhtar told The Express Tribune.

To personalise her work further, he said, Bukhari had considered drawing images that dealt specifically with the female body.

“Indigenous practices such as embroidery, stitching, knotting and knitting are a female domain and almost exclusive to the female component of the rural economy.”

Born in Multan, Bukhari graduated from the Multan College of Arts, Bahauddin Zakariya University, in 2010. She did her masters in visual arts from the National College of Arts, Lahore, in 2012.

She is pursuing PhD in Art History from the University of the Punjab.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 18^th, 2014.