KARACHI: A two-day exhibition held to pay tribute to unsung heroes of the country through artworks made by Saher Shah Rizvi concluded at the Ahmed Pervaiz Gallery of the Arts Council of Pakistan on Sunday.

Talking to Dawn and exp­l­aining the adjective ‘unsung’ in the title of the show, Ms Rizvi said, “By unsung we mean those her­oes that we usually don’t celebrate. The idea struck me to combine individuals from different walks of life or fields — writers, poets, singers, actors etc — who we usually don’t pay tribute to. I wanted to them a collective tribute.”

Giving the reason for that, the artist said the exhibition has been arran­ged so that the coming generations of Pakistanis get inspired by such men and women.

“Civilisations or history in the world is preserved through art. Again, the idea was to attract the coming generations. Today we see ‘influencers’ on social media impacting the young minds. It’s better to get inspiration from those who have done something good for Pakistan or have substantially contributed to it. For example, the 100 people that I have painted include Abdul Sattar Edhi sahib, Faiz Ahmed Faiz, Adib Rizvi, Samina Pirz­a­da, Abida Parveen, Ben­azir Bhutto and Ruth Pfau, among others,” she said.

The medium that Ms Rizvi has used for the exhibits is oil on canvas. “It’s been five years since I started working on this project. I began working on it during the Covid pandemic. Today, it’s finally been exhibited.”

She said the reason for choosing the council for the display of her works is that people know the institution well and it’s working for the promotion of art.

Apart from the names of the prominent people that the artist took during the

interview, all of them wearing the ajrak, one saw an image of the celebrated artist and theatre practitioner, the late Zia Mohyeddin, too. He is shown in his typical posture: hands joined, looking intent, before uttering a poignant line or saying an important sentence.

The show was hosted by Visionary Art Alliance and the Sindh culture department.

Published in Dawn, September 9th, 2024