From hidden messages to dispelling myths
Anil Datta
Karachi: An art show opened at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture on Wednesday evening, featuring six young artists with varying styles and schools of painting.
There is the more conventional form of art of young Muhammad Atif Khan. Two of his works – Migration (i) and Migration (ii) – are a pleasant change from the current trends in modern art, which leave so much to the imagination of the viewer, especially the ones with an overly fertile one.
The Migration pieces depict flocks of migratory birds with gaudy plumage soaring high above the earth. This is so very soothing to the vision after the kind of works one sees at art exhibitions these days: an assortment of random lines or weird, distorted faces.
There’s nothing of the kind with Khan’s works. There is something surrealistically beautiful about them.
A graduate in fine arts from Lahore’s National College of Arts, Khan has exhibited throughout Asia, Africa, North America and Europe. Among art fairs that he’s participated in are India Art Fair in New Delhi, Art HK 12 in Hong Kong, and SCOPE in the US city of Miami.
Talking about his work, he said: “Its poetic symbolism can be clearly observed. One can find recognisable objects and symbols in them, which denote obvious meanings.”
This, he said, can lead the viewer to find hidden messages. “My work has a decorative quality which is a significant element of traditional arts.”
Dispelling myths
Another interesting piece of art is Sara Khan Pathan’s portraits of Ayub Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Jansher Khan, Jahangir Khan, Amir Khan (the British Pakistani boxer), and Imran Khan – all of them with walnuts as headgears.
This is an allusion to a myth among some segments of society that people with the ethnic identity of Khan don’t have much of grey matter.
The artist has most astutely dispelled this unfounded myth by conveying the fact that all these Khans are Pakistan’s icons in various fields and had they been short on grey matter, they wouldn’t have been there.
Pathan, a fine art graduate and distinction holder from the University of Karachi, has over the years become a thriving artist.
Not only does she work in mixed media but she has given the field of miniature a whole new perspective by initiating the concept of miniature sculpture.
Source: The News
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