Promising visual artist Anam Mukhtar remembers learning mathematics with the help of her drawings in the classroom in junior school.

“My mother was passionate about knitting and dress designing. She would draw the sketches and collect images from fashion magazines in her sketchbook. Drawing the images from her collections was my first exposure to art and craft. It was one of the richest memories of my childhood that made a lasting impression on my mind,” she recalls.

Born and raised at Chashma, a small town near Khushab, Anam was interested in fine arts but her sister pushed her to opt for science subjects, resulting in a complete disaster.

“I was unable to relate with scientific formulae and theories. It made me realise my mistake and I switched to arts and literature after wasting a couple of years,” she relates while remembering her childhood days.

“Passionate about drawing and painting, I wanted to do majors in fine arts but my parents were not convinced, they sent me to Government College for Women, Gulberg, Lahore, to do a bachelors degree in education. On our first day in the college, the head of department came to our class for an introductory discussion. She informed us that any of us can change the subjects and opt for the area of our own interests because life is too short to waste and have regrets. That moment changed my life. I rushed to the fine arts department and qualified for the admission tests,” Anam says about the moment that determined the course of her life.

Raised in a small town, Anam had no exposure to formal art education. Initially, it was tough for her to compete with her fellow students already trained in various disciplines of the visual arts. She worked really hard, experimenting with a wide range of mediums and earned a degree with silver medal.

Making art with objects and unconventional materials, she made bold and blunt statements on patriarchy, the concept of marriage and religious theories commonly interpreted and used as a means of exploitation of women.

“Grown up in a small town, like many other girls, I also faced restrictions and discrimination imposed by male-dominated society. But I had to accept them for the time being with a strong feeling of revolt and resistance. I was shocked to see the attitude of grade five students with their young female teachers while I was teaching in boys branch of a local school in Lahore,” she says.

Hegemonic masculinity displayed by young students in junior school and a series of injustices to the women she witnessed around her triggered the idea of the recent body of works she displayed at Anna Molka Gallery as a degree show of MPhil in Fine Arts at Institute of Arts and Design, University of Punjab.

Innovative in her approach, Anam can turn any ordinary object into a visual statement that shocks the viewer. With a satiric view, she looks at life in sharp contradictions, with darks and lights mostly with no grey areas in between. She employs sheer contrasting elements in concepts and materials to create a strong impact through her installations. The most significant element of her work is that she drastically changes the perception of the materials or objects according to her own perceptions – a hairbrush, nails and toilet seats are transformed into artworks to convey the unconventional meanings conceived by herself.

Published in Dawn, December 9th, 2018