‘The hidden agenda’ on display
By: Anil Datta
Karachi: Art has come a long way from the conventional pursuit it was during the time of the English landscape painters and Goya or Renoir.
Today there are many schools of art and many art forms which might look weird to a lay viewer. Or, the forms depicted may not be as clear and leave so much to the viewer’s imagination to figure out as to what the artist is depicting. This is also referred to as abstract. This is when lines or blobs are supposed to be a narrative of an event or depiction of a scenario.
This is precisely what is running at the Koel Art Gallery currently and goes on up until August 31.
A Lahore-based artist, Ayesha Siddiqui’s paintings are on display, 23 of them, which are an exercise in abstraction. There is a big quadriptych which is just a juxtaposition of clashing colours, to some viewers, jarring on the eye, abruptly blending into one another. True to its theme, the exhibition is indeed a hidden agenda.
When asked by this correspondent to explain the theme, she said, “I can’t tell you. After all, it is hidden agenda.” When asked to explain the theme behind the Quadriptych, the answer was the same.
However, despite the communication gap between the artist and the viewer, she has highly commendable antecedents. She is a candidate for a doctorate in fine arts at the University of the Punjab, Lahore. She is a gold medalist in MA, Fine Arts. She has the distinction of having represented Pakistan at the 13th and 14th Asian Art Biennele (2008 and 2010) in Dhaka, Bangladesh and the 3rd 4th Asian Art expo in Beijing, China, in 2011, and 2012. She has read papers on art at many international conferences.
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