Maria Jamil Bagheri's 'Love, Life, Music'

“The space between people working together is filled with conflict, friction, strife, exhilaration, delight, and vast creative potential.”

I was once reading through Bruce Mau’s Incomplete Manifesto for Growth, from where I remember this quote which perfectly fits in this situation which was completely filled with the oomph of creative potential. The evening of December 10th at the Indus Valley School of Arts and Architecture was an inspiring and thought provoking experience with the work of 43 graduates from the last 17 batches of IVS standing proud and tall.

The IVS Alumni Collective III titled “Art inspires change” is an exciting collaborative effort which varied from personal to national themes. Participating artists expressed their creative niche in forms of typography, photography, illustrations, prints, paintings, furniture design, architecture, textile and graphic design. The inner thoughts of the artists depicted through their distinctive styles, creative ideas and the diverse mediums made the made the show a complete package.

Humayun Memon, a Communication Design 2008 graduate, exhibited a life- size photograph of Jain Temple’s ceiling in Multan with fiery tones of red and orange and intricate details. The temple is now being used as a madarssa with century old carving and painting details. While talking to him about his piece, he mentioned how barely lit the ceiling is and to get the right detailing and almost the same feel, he had to punch up the colors and boost up saturation.

Zeeshan Haider’s photo series dealt with the emotion and sensitivity of the future of the Khyber Agency’s new generation. Haider, in his own words writes: “Strangers by the looks but the similarities seem to come up in some way or another. I don’t know if the city will stay the same, but at least the rain will, and the summers too.”

Emaan Mahmud, a fine artist had mixed her memories to date with an inward look of the subconscious on canvas as her display. With a charcoal sketch of Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa mixed with splashes of paint and graphite marks in one of her pieces, stood a distinctive canvas that gave everyone a connection of recalling their own memories linked to fine art.

The exhibit also included pieces from the field of ceramics, which was something rarely seen in the previous shows. One of the works was put up by Abeer Asim a ceramics graduate of the batch of 2008. There were five pieces on display, four on a table and one framed up on the wall and they seemed to be distorted and deformed lumps of white, black and gray. While talking to her she explained her theme which represented the disturbing image of Pakistan portrayed through media and how she wants to deliver her concerns about her journey away from Pakistan while she was doing her Masters at the University of Wales. The pieces included images of her passport and newspaper cutouts as a hidden and interesting element.

Another different part of the show was some contemporary wooden furniture placed in a corner including two chairs and a table. The table had promotional brochures and cards of a new company called Alavi Designs, formed by an Architect Ali Asghar Alalvi. Images of interior space shots created by him were on display, presenting his interest of designing spaces with a concept of layering that would give the viewer something new to look at each time they came back to a space.

The exhibition’s highlight came from Maria Jamil Bagheri’s narrative of expression through three illustrative pieces conveying the theme. Maria felt that a sudden unpredictability in life made her see things differently. That is where the theme of “love” Leila, “life” Zoya and “music” Leena came from. The very clichéd yet comforting symbols of birdcages, hearts and musical notes somehow worked perfectly to show life.

The collective vibe of creativity that is moving towards a change is reflected in the show which is worth a visit. The display remains until December 31 at the IVSAA Gallery.