KARACHI: Trying to strike the kind of balance between body and soul that one desires as a sentient creature is a topic that has always grabbed the attention of the artist community. The subject on surface seems easy to understand; in reality, it is not. The reason for it is that body is to do with the physical aspect of life, and soul with the spiritual. One is tangible, the other intangible. To achieve such a harmony is never uncomplicated. An exhibition of artist Muhammad Ali’s paintings titled Some Kind of Marriage that’s concluded at the Canvas Art Gallery last week examines the same issue.

Ali does not confine his motif to the world that he lives in. The artworks that he has put on display aim for a bigger target. For example, the first exhibit in the show is called ‘Cosmic Sandwich’ (oil on canvas). To start off with the cosmos implies that he thinks living beings are part of a larger scheme of things, and it is in that scheme of things that they should be looked at.

That being said, and moving from the macro to the micro, man and woman remain the centre from where the artist is investigating things all around. So exhibits such as ‘Raising the Bride’ are introduced. They enable the viewer to relate his train of thought to societal issues. Now the physical, the spiritual and the social combine to form a picture that the painter wants the viewer to see.

In his statement, Ali says, “To evoke the unknown, I weave symbolic landscapes and figures, exploring the union of opposites. The exhibition navigates the soul’s longing for unity, echoing the eternal return.”

When he mentions the ‘union’ he also highlights the ‘opposites’, suggesting that dualities or binaries are there to be understood — or studied — as a singular force. Good stuff!

Published in Dawn, November 19th, 2024