Faculty of Karachi School of Arts display work at third annual exhibition
KARACHI: Sheema Khan worked for month to create the storyline of Dastan-e-Amir Hamza, which hung majestically in the gallery of Karachi School of Arts (KSA). The hot-pink masterpiece was a fusion of two mediums – miniature painting and printmaking. But the wait was worth it.
Khan was one of the 16 faculty members of the KSA who displayed their artwork. This was the third such exhibition organised by the school. This year’s theme was printmaking.
“It took time to finish this because I had to work on an acrylic sheet and had to carve out the images using a hard tool,” said Khan, looking at her work with a smile on her face. She had penned Faiz Ahmed Faiz’s couplets on her painting with the prince and deer on her painting.
The process of printmaking involves making multiple impressions on different sheets of metal, paper, cloth or any other material. The plates can be merged together or kept separate for each piece.
The teachers of fine arts, miniature, textiles, and digital media were first trained and taught how to mix printmaking with their work. All 16 of them produced around 30 works of arts of three types, etching, screen printing and calligraphy.
“Because the processes involved in printmaking are tedious, they aren’t used much these days,” said Romila Kareem, the academics coordinator. “Before the exhibition we held a two-week workshop to teach the teachers how to use printmaking.”
Kareem’s own work was a depiction of paradise. “I have made a human hand with flowers on it,” she said. “The flowers depict peace. I wanted to show that peace lies within yourself.” The landscape behind the hand was the promised gardens of Eden.
The chief of digital media department, Sadaf Sajid, had experimented with photographs and printmaking. Her work was titled “Confined Freedom” and it showed pictures of Sheema Kirman embossed and textured in different colours and techniques in line with print making. “My work shows that freedom is restricted for women,” explained Sajid. “See the door behind Sheema? It shows they are never free and somewhere they are always confined.” She has been teaching at KSA for the past ten years.
A student of first year, Fazal, was all smiles seeing the work of his teachers. Commenting on one of the works, he said that it was completely different from the photography and animation course she taught. “I am glad that our teachers’ work has been put on display,” he said. “Like us, they need appreciation and a platform for showcasing their creativity.”
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