“SHOWDOWN EPREUVE DE FORCE”

GALLERY ALLIANCE FRANCAISE DE KARACHI 4TH TO 24TH DEC’14

CURATOR:MEHREEN HASHMI

ZAIN ASHIR KARACHI

My entire life could be spent spewing out these creatures and realms inspired by the likes of Sadequain, Blake, Prehistoric fauna, mythology, comic books and clinical psychology. I fancy myself as a primordial world of myths and legends that were being crafted by my subconscious. This is how I deal with sorrow and fear, to create these archetypal characters that exist as a psychological testament to the power and healing of myths.

MEHBOB JOKHIO MAHRUBPUR

Having a literary family background, my art making practice is often informed by literary themes. I am a poet and short story writer, but divides most of my creative practice in visual art making. In my recent body of work, I trace back to the reference from history and religious beliefs, working with the found material be it a video, an animation, an or a literary piece, I work with the idea of how print/digital media information gets changed and re/mis-interpreted en-route to the receiver. Unloading the loaded imagery and retains the visual pleasure revealing tons of narratives and a dialogue among the viewer, work and myself.

My work is an observation of things happening around me. It is based on my interpretation of how time has passed by me during a wait. In awe of the inevitability of disintegration, I question the transience of beauty, vanity, self and all that is material. Incorporating different materials within the traditional construct of life, I introduce the viewer to what appears to be a repeating, cyclical routine. The more one realizes the extent of the repetition, the more horrifying their predicament seems. Inspired by classic and contemporary Structural films and videos, my work incorporates audio and video footage of my surroundings that have been collected over a period of time This has allowed to me to create a personal documentation of my impatience and helplessness during a period of waiting, thereby staging eternity in real-time. The mediums that I deliberately choose to work with – predominantly videos and photographs – capture moments in time. It is through these mediums that I can better stage the relationship between time and the

material.

ASMA ANSARI KARACHI

My paintings are on Sufi thoughts…how to develop your relation with Real Truth. It is a self searching and self transforming progress towards Real, one should think about what is not visible or what is visible is revelation towards Unknown…attain understanding between inner and outer world intuition and meditation. I gave form to intangible thoughts, thoughts which solve questions and strengthen the power of understanding. My idea is to make a work which stimulates thinking. My painting speaks about subject matter, conceived through knowledge and intuition and is based on the concept of being and knowing. In these colorful oil paintings, I used the shadow of an object or different objects at different time of sunlight. The forms are simple and expressive and their movements show the idea behind. They represented the idea of reflection. My source of inspirations is what are the entities to which I am not conscious or what are things I wanted to know about? Feeling the transcending aspect of material, is the way I can achieve to know myself spiritually. It is step by step process each achievement is my own individual experience through which I grow myself and associate myself with the world.

ANIQA FATIMA KARACHI

My series of video work and canvas focuses on the female body and its relationship to different elements and everyday objects within various spaces and environments. On a daily basis I found myself overwhelmingly confronted with images and prescriptions for "being beautiful." I decided to address the illusions and the realities that exist for women faced with this fact of contemporary culture.

In the videos, the aim is to experiment till the point where the transformation and shape of the body merge with the objects and elements until it is changed into a sculpture when affected.

NIDA RAMZAN FAISALABAD

HAMIDA KHATRI KARACHI

As an artist I work with the female body, documenting the transformational aspects of domesticated women, which are translated as disoriented figurative forms and puppetry sculptures. This decoding of the conscious understanding of women’s entities makes me look through the binoculars of self-awareness, aiming to instigate the audience to reflect upon their true selves when confronted with my artwork.

SEHAR SHAH RIZVI KARACHI

My environment and surroundings motivates my work. In my work, I was inspired by the beauty of Hair. Hair - human or animal - represents the female in my work. For me, everything seems perfect in its place but once we change its position or context, the entire idea is changed. We are used to watching hair in our routine life but if we change their placement, the entire meaning will change. Many writers, poets and artists have done their work on hair. My interpretation of hair, in this body of work comes from composing it with different things, creating multiple meanings from it. Everyone has their own way of thinking and generating ideas. I want everyone to understand and respond to my work according to their ideas and views. When we compose two apparently unrelated things with each other they create more meanings. Through my work I want to make people think how paintings and visual language influence different people according to their life experiences, belief systems and educational background.

ANAM SHAKIL KARACHI

Every single person carries his or her own world inside, beyond this physical world of matter. Whenever I sit alone, I draw my own world full of mysteries and myths. What I think and what I see is directly related to my world and visual language supports me to express my views and thoughts.

ASAD GULZAR HYDERABAD

Prior to produce/construct art work I often become conscious about material, specially the stuff which directs us to traditional art medium. Art work..........it’s not an easy/ a schedule/ to do list job, before to initiate have to think a lot, “What do have to paint”, to splotch the message to the viewer wits, never let him go to next art work by asking him/ herself, “what does it mean?”, him/ her must have to consider why the artist decide to go for the selected item/s, is it any particular intention when choosing them. Because the artwork usually goes much deeper than just portray attractive objects, even if a piece is supposedly meaningless, there is always fundamental thought route behind the work. It’s important to examine the art work with humorously and an investigative eyes. Similarly through my art work I challenged the medium and used unusual surface. I found that junk material is most suitable for this purpose. So, I choose junk material and played with it in a particular way which created interesting and appealing visuals.

FOZIA SOLANGI HYDERABAD

Vibrant colors and Square pieces of rally I feel absorbed inside me. Threads stitched in rally create an unusual vision that compels me to do something with this superb craft of Sind. I don’t consider it as only a craft it’s a creativity in which inner most emotions of a worker are sewed with cloth. A line of sewed thread is like a continuation of life and infinity of wishes. Different colors which village women use, some time create a juxtaposed illusion. In my work I have merged logos and different signs of TV channels and social media with traditional rally to show the influences which are directly affecting our society. I see rally as a story in which colors and patterns are main characters connected to each other with threads. Every color and a pattern altogether play its role to make a complete art. I have tried to express the hard work and deep emotions which rise in the women working on rally. In one of my painting I have shown hunger and poverty by painting a meal overlapping squares of rally. A rally is also like different moods and nature of daily life which I have expressed in my paintings with different compositions painted mostly in Gad rung on Wasli.

SABOORA SHAFIQ GUJRAT

My work is narrative to the summary of life and its destruction. With the increase of jealousy, greed and selfishness to accept other's happiness & growth, the use of Black magic has become the most common way to take out one's cruelty and get an evil kind of satisfaction from the turmoil of others. My work shows the mental and physical condition of a sufferer. The condition of sufferings and miseries of victim is revolving around the lines. These can indicate the viewer to find unseen messages.

SIDRA KHALID LAHORE

My work explores the visual possibilities as I do not deliberately create concepts. Using a mix of traditional techniques and more unconventional painting methods I constantly search for the right combination between different media; Objectivity and subjectivity confront each other and interact. Using elaborate style and intricate details as it gives shape to the subjects. I want to establish a dialogue between the subject and myself and then the viewer and myself by telling the visual experiences. Having a mind being affected by the set minds and rules of where I live and work the manner is being very indirect and simple but suggestive in ambiguous way harmonized between figuration and abstraction that express the underlying tensions of society facing both freedom and crisis. A sense of intimacy and isolation is generated while leaving the subject open to interpretation. However, my attitude is questioning and approach is to record and comment on things that are more than visually apparent: to invite people to experience both emotionally, and intellectually.

In our world that strives for perfection and order through computerization, I find an excitement in digital errors. These unwanted glitches so bothersome to the eye due to the programming of human perception, are unique and exciting in their own way. Exploring patterns existing in everyday life I find a strange satisfaction in purposefully breaking them through the very means that reinforces them. We tend to find comfort in routine and repetition, it lulls the mind into a safe haven of conformity, and so I choose to bring in the thrill of the unexpected into the endless monotony.

NIMRA KHAN

KARACHI

HIRA KHALID HYDERABAD

I wanted to show how I feel about the Uncertainty amongst people and the Hope left in Pakistan through shapes and compositions. “Raat abhi jawan hai Jani” literal meaning “there is still hope left”.

Frustrated life and chaos situation which is scattered everywhere in Pakistan now has ended the trust among fellow citizen. A faith which is very necessary for a communal or social life has lost its roots because of the ambiguity and unlawful activities in our cities. Being an artist it is my responsibility to change the perception of a viewer and to develop a trust and faith between people. I fancy, people reclaim their lives and I feel like adding the colors of social gathering which were a by-part of life sometimes earlier.

Through my visuals I wish to bring hope among people. The shiny streets and roads covered with sparkling lights of sign boards and blushing cheeks of people in the evenings. I am going to make part of my art work through first share colors and visuals of timely enjoying people.

MARYAM SALEEM HYDERABAD

My body of work is based on moments. The work I did is those moments which destined to come in our lie but have great impact and changed our life. This experienced I have shown in my work, by doing these drawings. The wires in my drawings shows continuity I thought that these wires are like passed days having ups and downs but leaves a great impact at our life.

MEHRU UN NISA HYDERABAD

Garbage is found all over in society. It spreads negative impact. This negative approach forced me to think about it. I tried to change the notion by using it as a medium in my work. I found it visually very interesting. Random compositions, variety of tones are very fascinating.

ZAHRA ASIM LAHORE

I believe, I have an extraordinary memory. I had spent my life in the congested environment. It bothered me a lot with the passage of time. I am turning romantic and nostalgic for it. My Paintings are presented in the form of mini snapshots of ordinary scenes containing ordinary objects strew about in ordinary settings. Crowded interiors of my old spaces. To create the feel of overcrowded space, I chose to work on a small scale and rendered the objects in intricate details by putting a lot of hard work.

SABIR ALI TANDO ALLAH YAR

In my work I am showing those things that which is all around my environment recently .I have used it ,which simultaneously change my environment the studio in the facility of FACTs were so many students come there and do work of art oil paints drawings practice on drawing boards and they use drawing boards for drawing

The inspiration of my work is the environment of those things .'drawings board on drawing 'the material of drawing board use for drawing and many technically process of drawing .I have used the surface of canvas and work on it with my skill and experience The actual board is not a durable material .I have painted drawings boards on canvas like is it, and create a illusion of this .

HUREEN AKRAM KARACHI

I take art as a most significant and most thoughtful way to depict the particular aspects of one’s imagination and interest. Here I have used multiple media to illustrate certain ideas, thoughts and realities.

MARIA JAMALI HYDERABAD

I kept asking questions from myself since my visit to Baluchistan. Is woman a different creature then human being and man? Children with sad faces doesn’t have right to be happy and enjoy the beauty of life? It seemed to me Stone Age in twenty first century… My work is about women identity and children I saw. Woman is confined to family roles, their identity is subtracted from their personality, she cannot enjoy individual freedom and perform multiple roles she wants. And children had grown up before their childhood due to burden of responsibilities of earning. With their potential unlocked and their dreams unrealized, I heard a silent noise inside them.. In my paintings I showed women without faces and replaced their faces with other images .worked in ink on paper and digital print and ink work together.

NAUSHEEN KHAN KARACHI

My work is focused on the documentation of a street as seen from a roof top at different times of the day. I begin a piece by carefully observing the space, I take in everything; from the lights to the dark, from the silence to the noise. I capture all the things I see at a particular time along with the range of emotions that bubble up inside of me while doing that. Time and light have an equal place in my artwork. Although every piece is created in the same space and it captures that same space but it has its own experience which is distinct from others, behind every piece lies a different story and a different feeling.

YASIR WAQAS LAHORE

In my distant memories of growing up, learning mechanics of real airplanes and watching the fascinating details of engines was something I fondly did. It triggered my imagination, inspired me to draw them but more than that I was expected to fly them. Being a GPL Pilot and a CAA authorized aircraft mechanic, I felt limited and constrained. Something I wasn’t really sure about started a contradictory conflict within me. What lies between is a huge haze of confusion, clash of ideas and flight from certain circumstances but not able to fully shun what has been planted in one’s mind.

My work is about compromises and conflicts within a personality, between idea innate and idea implanted, and the damage to the personality and the idea itself. The occurrence of feather and metal in my work continue to build and deceive the viewer because of their very nature, one being the artificially created and the other nature itself. Yet it is a contradiction to their very existence. The battle of opposing a planted idea in my work also explains that it is not always easy to make something you think best for yourself and act according to your will doesn’t necessarily makes it your reality. Sometimes it leaves you claustrophobic and again leaves you with a desire to fly to the unknown.

BILAL MIRZA HYDERABAD

In my work I have shown creativity. I have found a unique medium bindya. Each bindya has been pasted by needle. I mostly work on black and white theme as a symbol of patience and peace. I have drawn an imaginary and attracted forms and shapes in my work with different style.

QADIR JHATIAL LAHORE

My work is inspired by elements in my surroundings that leads to multiple levels of aesthetic inquiry pertaining to space, figure-grounded relationship, distance and proximity etc. I transformed the objects and figures in my immediate environment into matrices of a complex visual disorder. The interplay of spaces , surfaces, textures ,materials and sensitive use of domestic and familiar act as devices to help me transform the personal and the mundane into imaginary phenomena. My interest in exploring new ideas, mediums and methods of work has led me to experience a different visual vocabulary-especially that of flat color and hard edge painting.

ROHAIL GHOURI HYDERABAD

My work is about exploring different things and mediums I am creating my own surfaces to convey my reactions, messages and emotions.

I have always been inspired by the world around me and the inspiration for my work comes from variety of sources including personal experiences, people, events, old master artworks, books etc.

TOOBA SHEIKH HYDERABAD

Previously I have done my thesis on myself in which I combined my abaya with different birds, animals and objects. I did it with very minute details by using miniature technique. Presently i am working on a different topic which is also related to myself and the nature around me. My work depicts my surrounding in which I am living or which I see. I am realizing that many amazing and extra ordinary things are present in front of my eyes. So I have decided to use these things in my new work.

I have tried to combine the present and past by choosing some symbolic things, Which are traditional tiles, style of painting water in traditional miniature. Which attracts me a lot. Red tiles and the water which earlier miniature artists used to paint in a traditional style attracts me a lot. I have done a little change by breaking the continuation of tiles and flow of water in irregular form.

KIRAN SAEED KARACHI

As an artist I have observed all thing around me although my art have realistic visual hence there is a conceptual and contemporary thinking behind it.

The human form for me is the most important phenomenon of the universe I recognized a number of hidden secrets of human by the time.

"our politicians are the like of these glittery boxes. They show us only their dazzling sides and we don’t know what is hidden inside the whole package.

FARRUKH ADNAN LAHORE

My interest of wandering pushes me to explore and investigate socio-political and cultural aspects of space (Tulamba) through my art practice. Tulamba is my home town and located southern Punjab, Pakistan. I am engaging or holding the space with my practice, and trying to find connections with it through my own experience all of it in relation to space and historical significance of the space, its current global values and connection with another world. And also trying to figure out the “sense of self” and “sense of space” esthetically as well as what is the reaction of space with time?