Curated by artist and writer Aziz Sohail, ‘Body Ecologies’ was an exhibition recently held at the Canvas Gallery in Karachi. It featured works by Bibi Hajra, Mariam Habib, Misha Japanwala, Sanie Bokhari and Sophie Balagamwala.

“Within this particular moment of policing, surveillance, violence, assault and protest,” says Sohail, “how may we honour, affirm and imagine the (non-normative) body as it exists and moves in and against the world?”

According to the curator, “An increasing visibility and presence of female and trans bodies amidst a proliferation of organisation and collectivity has led to an intense backlash. Within this moment, how may we hold space for community and belonging? In this particular moment of the body simultaneously being unfree and free, how may we sit with this tension and paradox?”

For the last two years, Hajra’s work has singularly focused on the women at the shrine of Bibi Pak Daman, and this exhibition is no exception. This time she focuses on both the ordinary and the extraordinary within the walls of the shrine. Her paintings, gouache on paper and gouache and graphite on coffee-stained paper, hark back to her recent exhibitions this past year. One can’t help but feel that it’s a continuation of artworks she’s shown before.

In ‘Body Ecologies’, female artists pushed back against the patriarchy and created a space for themselves and other women

Out of her collection, Mural I stands out because in it the artist presents a zoomed out view of the shrine. The work shows a flowing body of water in one section of the painting under a blue-grey tinted night, in which billow the leaves of old trees within the premises of the shrine as a lone jharookash [sweeper] works under the twinkling stars. There’s a rich tranquillity in Mural I.

Habib focuses on the female form, in all its curvy glory, in her collection. As if to unapologetically say, here we are, naked and unashamed, and not how the male gaze wants to make us out to be.

Japanwala shows three of her casts in the exhibition. Conversations Between My Past, Present & Future Selves I, II and III start from the upper half of the body, showing collarbones and bust (I) and moving on to the torso (II) and finally, at the very end, going even further down to include the perineum (III) — in a way, representing completion.

Two of her sketches, Fahaashi I and II, ink-on-paper, have the word fahaashi [Vulgarity] incorporated into the female form. These are available to view on the artists’ Instagram page as well. After seeing her work online for so many years, it was nice to be able to view her artwork in person.

There is a not-so-subtle rebellion in Bokhari’s collection. She’s fighting the patriarchy through her art. What stands out the most is a mixed media piece, The Longer I Wait, which incorporates a vintage, black and white photograph of a wedding procession, with the groom in the centre, his face obscured by a sehra [headdress]. And with graphite on paper, she has created a chain of women, joined together by their braids, breathing fire on to the paper and, therefore, on this most patriarchal of all traditions. The messaging is quite clear.

In ‘Body Ecologies’, the artists seem to explore the female form as a mode of fighting back. The exhibition is brazen and unapologetic and explores the female form and the world it exists in and responds to, at times unleashing a quiet sort of fury in the installations that serve both as a validation of the artists’ struggles, but also as a testament to all the women pushing for their rights.

‘Body Ecologies’ was exhibited at the Canvas Gallery, Karachi from February 21 to March 2, 2023

Published in Dawn, EOS, April 9th, 2023