Our natural environment is deteriorating. We have overfilled land with waste, plastic contaminates the ocean waters and air pollution continues to envelop the earth — trapping heat within the atmosphere. The result is a change in climate that is being felt across all continents — we are experiencing extreme heat waves, waters are becoming warmer and thus unaccommodating for many oceanic species, and polar ice caps are melting, causing unusual flooding.

As policy legislators and the public follow the scientific community to begin work on counter measures, such as decreasing carbon footprints and the consumption of natural resources, and increasing the use of renewable energy and sustainable materials that minimally impact land and water, visual artists are also responding to this universal issue.

Curated by art critic Quddus Mirza, the exhibition ‘Before the End of Time’ addresses climate catastrophes and the loss of natural resources. As stated in the curatorial note, the works do not offer ways out, but rather remind viewers of such ecological concerns. Through this logic, viewers may consider the intention of the exhibition to be educational, as much as it is an exploration of art methods and media.

Thematically, I sense that the show maintains the concept from Mirza’s curated project ‘If You Have Tears’ (July 2021) with the same premise. In ‘If You Have Tears’, the artworks emanated a calm pace as artists delved into their personal and social relationship with water.

Artists sound the alarm on the rising temperatures, pollution and human practices that have led to a climate emergency

The current show expands this view by taking water and its scarcity as an essential theme among other crucial topics, such as increased temperatures, the connection between elite power hierarchies and the environment, deforestation, and changes in climate, as well as the aesthetics born out of visuals of nature and sites of massive power and energy constructions.

The strength of the exhibition lies in its exciting utilisation of materials often considered unbecoming of fine and visual art. For example, Hooria Khan has preserved fungus on handmade paper. Khan discovered fungus-on-paper accidently after saving a flower in her journal. Growing fungus raises concerns of sustainability, and the artist preserves the moulds using layee (a mixture of copper sulphate).

The artist draws animals over the surface, referring to how living things are deprived of their natural environments for human pleasure. In the works Mahi [Fish] and Open Water, Khan draws fish with demon-like figures that suggest that an overly consumerist culture is responsible for the loss of natural species.

Works in off-white fibreglass by Jamil Baloch suggest aerial views of patchy dried lands, reminiscent of the terrains of Balochistan and Sindh. Visually minimal in approach, Baloch uses nature as a site of aesthetics visuals.

Hamid Ali Hanbhi also brings us illustrations of nature through his paintings. In his statement, Hanbhi is critical of the trend of ignoring Earth’s resources with a preference for finding “new homes” on other “lifeless planets.” Warm and muddy-toned paintings titled Dil Darya (1, 2 and 3) are a “colour-palette progression” over his previous monochromatic kohl [charcoal] works. Visually and in concept, the paintings make no reference to finding homes on other planets. However, they engage the viewers by reflecting over the paucity of natural reserves.

Aamir Habib’s work Race Into The Sky connects ready-made products such as a humidifier and red LED lights to a metal container that emits a mist, referring to global warming. Sadqain uses concrete and an electric pump in his installation Obscure I that oozes water on the surface. Photographs by the Pak Khawateen Painting Club and a composite image by Aneel Waghela raise concerns about the imbalance between power structures (ruling and authoritative class, energy, and power plants etc.) and local cultures, and the loss of water in the land of Sindh.

More paintings, drawings and paper impressions come from Mubashar Iqbal, Shahid Malik, Suleman Aqeel Khilji, Saulat Ajmal (one of the four members of the Pak Khawateen Painting Club) Kiran Saleem, Huria Khan and Haider Ali Naqvi.

Science (and common sense) indicates that the climate predicament is real, and every new generation faces greater consequences that jeopardise the survival of all living things on Earth. Contemporary artists urge all viewers to rethink and re-evaluate their consumption to avert the impending environmental crisis.

‘Before the End of Time’ was exhibited at Canvas Gallery in Karachi from June 2-14, 2022

Published in Dawn, EOS, June 19th, 2022