Adopting the ‘target’ as a conceptual cue, four Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture students, interning at Canvas Gallery, Karachi, recently mounted a show titled “Nishaana” comprising an assortment of dissident art by 12 contemporary artists. Curatorial practice is not a compulsory part of the school curriculum but this show was part of their internship programme and the gallery provided interns Bismah Raffat, Zayanna Kamran, Zoila Soloman and Andaleeba Akhtar with the opportunity to curate it.

The art of protest comes naturally to young minds accustomed to an environment rife with socio-political conflict. As a working title “Nishaana” hits bulls eye as it instantly connects with the ongoing militant attacks, targeted operations and destabilisation of state infrastructure and resultant cultural havoc. However, in selecting recent art by the featured artists the curators have opted for diverse interpretations of the word ‘target’ in order to question it from multiple perspectives. Open-ended or definitive the works, both social and political in origin, examine the human condition as victim and aggressor.

A series of archival digital prints by Amra Khan centred on a hijab-clad female whose niqab, in each successive print, was emblazoned with Disney, MTV signs and other familiar images subscribing to a Western wish list. Seemingly amusing this combination points at religio-cultural polarities where the human being, wedged between orthodox and liberal sensibilities, emerges as the victim.

An exhibition aimed at helping students understand the intricacies of mounting a show

Zayanna explains that Shoaib Mehmood’s work, was included in the show because he “has a very direct way of portraying victimisation of Pakistanis due to colonialism.” Playing with shadow figures, omissions and overlaps, Mehmood’s art featuring “Western imagery camouflaged into traditional Mughal miniature,” re-enacts pre-partition history to describe its effects on the national psyche.

Complex and very contemporary, Tazeen Qayum brings an array of imbalances into play to address current socio-political imbroglios. Playing with the cockroach image she intensifies its grossness with repetitive patterns of the dead insect to create attractive yet compellingly repulsive imagery. In troubled areas of the world today human lives are fodder to the mill of global politics, in various guises. By equating senseless death and destruction to the act of being killed like insects she points to the persecution of innocent masses either in the name of human rights or through terrorism or war on terror.

Oppressed humanity and insect as metaphor is also central to Salman Hasan’s art. He relates his struggle in life to the incredible and arduous journey of the tiny ants in a mighty world. He attaches meanings to the buzz of the bee / fly, references the fish as a symbol of life and freedom and sees romantic beauty and charm in a rose. He melds this symbolic imagery with disturbing poetic verses. It is the red blood spatters in his stark, severe and otherwise monochromatic art that first impacts the eye and set the tone of his message. A narrative of laborious ant trails, bees draining nectar from the flowers and the strained fish, as if beached on land and barely alive, complement the poignant text that often dribbles and blurs into squiggles — much like a fading heartbeat.

Wooden chess pawns entwined with rope and featuring heads of owls (literally Uloo in Urdu) were very direct, amusing and apt personifications of the public as helpless victims. Bismah Raheela Abro’s, ‘Allah ki Rassi’, and ‘Riaya’ are based on a verse from the Quran that urges people to stay united and avoid conflict.

Commenting on their experience intern Andaleeba Akhtar felt that the artwork on display addressed a “multitude of socio-economic and political issues of the present” which highlighted mistakes made by our ancestors and prompted us to learn from our mistakes. Adding to this Zoila termed the show “an amalgamation of personal and public influences and the complexity of shifting roles particularly in the context of social interactions.”

As a preparatory exercise such exhibitions enable students to understand the nature and complexity of contemporary art and the physical act of mounting a show and connecting with the media and an audience of viewers, collectors and buyers.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, June 28th, 2015

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