Theses with a difference
KARACHI: One doesn’t know about the rest of the fields, but as far as the subject of art is concerned there is tremendous talent in Pakistan. This could be seen at a two-day exhibition of theses works put up by final-year students of the Arts Council Institute of Arts and Crafts (ACIAC) at the council’s Ahmed Pervez Gallery.
Witnessing Farrukh Naseem’s pencil sketches, watercolour and oil paintings on Karachi’s old buildings is quite a revelation. The young man has terrific skills and keen observation. The lines that he draws are full of life. He says he is fascinated by the fact that the city’s colonial structures were built by masons who did not have the wonders of technology to help them. His tribute to the buildings, with flowing, moving strokes, is worth watching.
Zohaib Rind’s images of his own self have one special quality: he doesn’t look for elements outside of his private world to describe it; he positions himself against the backdrop of the subject that he feels strongly about — falsehood. He uses the metaphor of Benagli Baba who apparently has cure for every ailment under the sun, as the lost innocence of mankind.
Jannisaar is inspired by the vibrancy associated with Kailash women. But it is his sculpture, made out of newspaper cuttings, in which a person is seen in a posture that indicates an act of meditation that impresses the viewer — a host of thoughts that seem never to leave him even in a spiritual state of mind.
Asghar chooses to go for abstraction through his charcoal work and makes an impression with his dense strokes.
Ala Syed from the textile department makes ‘lines and shapes’ her subject and produces some brilliant pieces on khadi. The shy little girl needs to be encouraged, as does the very creative Rasheeda who gives the word ‘illusion’ a different meaning with reference to textiles. And a special mention should be made of Yasin Tofiq’s glass painting.
The head of the ACIAC, eminent artist Nahid Raza, deserves to be praised for giving her students the space to express their creative spirit without inhibition. The show concluded on Thursday evening.
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