Paintings’ exhibition: Pictures that comment on politics, obsessions

Exhibition at Taseer Art Gallery will run till Feb 9th.

LAHORE:

A paintings exhibition by two National College of Arts (NCA) alumni kicked off at the Taseer Art Gallery on Monday.

Shabbir Baloch and Hussain Jameel’s works comment on politics and addictions. The painters also expressed their childhood experiences which they believe are now becoming a rarity.

Talking to The Express Tribune, Baloch said most people didn’t express what was on their minds. He said instead of hiding his feelings, he tried to be as literal in expressions as possible. “My work is based on the same principle. If I see or feel something, I’ll say it as it is” he says.



Baloch graduated with a bachelors’ in Fine Arts degree from the NCA in 2013. He comes from Dera Murad Jamali district of Balochistan.

Baloch said the paintings titled ‘Nothing is funnier than Unhappiness’ were a comment on the subjective nature of happiness and sadness. “I have shown that the things that may make some people cry can also be a source of amusement for others,” he says.

He has also used self portrait to express this subjectivity. “The man riding the bicycle in green is me, but the man with kids on the other bicycle in the painting is also my image,” he says, “while the rider with kids is sad, the one in green finds the sight of a bicycle with so many passengers amusing,” he adds. The other painting with the same title shows a politician addressing a crowd of donkeys. Baloch says it is a comment on the way politics is done in the country.

In his other paintings, Baloch has depicted his childhood experiences in a Dera Murad Jamali village. These show children playing with marbles and a boy playing gilli danda, a traditional sport. “Unlike most youngsters who associate their childhood with latest gadgets, I associate it with these experiences,” he says. He adds that he had grown up in a remote village which lacked metalled roads and piped water. “There used to be a single bus that ran between my village and the nearest city. It used to leave the village at 6am sharp. If you’d missed it, there was no way to go the city that day,” he adds. Hussain Jameel says his work is inspired by an addiction for self documentation. “I have taken up the idea of selfie in my work. It has become popular amongst people to the extent that it is being seen as an addiction,” he says. Jameel adds that miniature paintings represent the same addiction for self documentation to him.

Jameel belongs to Abbottabad. He graduated from the NCA in 2014 with bachelors’ in miniature painting. His work on exhibition includes nine gouache on wasli pieces. He said a recently completed residency in Karachi had played a crucial role in his growth as an artist.

A bus being dragged by people is used as an analogy for the country (Top); A rider losing his balance on a horse is shown taking a selfie (Above). PHOTO: AYESHA MIR/EXPRESS

He says a triptych showing a man damaging cars is a comment on the way politics is conducted in the country these days.

Talking to The Tribune, Taseer Art Gallery owner Sanam Taseer praised the work of both artists. “Their work displays a strong sense of humour as a self defence mechanism. They find irony in daily life instances,” she said, “One may as well laugh at things that are beyond one’s ability to change.”

The exhibit ends on 9th of February.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 3^rd, 2015.