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Art Space recently organised the opening of Peeking Into Divinity. The art studio aims to promote a distinctive image of Pakistan by supporting visual expression and upholding the culture and traditions of the subcontinent. The show was a group exhibition featuring work by Attiya Usman, Hassan Sheikh, Rehmat Hazara and Saleena Shahid. From its title, the exhibition initially appeared to be about locating a higher power. However, viewing the artists’ work quickly changed that perception, suggesting instead that divinity relates to aspects of life that cannot be measured and have no definite number attached to them. What better way to explore this than through themes of memory, nostalgia, human struggle, the invisibility of women in a patriarchal society, the impact of childhood stories on one’s perception and the role of desire in an individual’s life?
Upon entering, Saleena Shahid’s display immediately caught my attention. Shahid, a Lahore-based visual artist, has participated in numerous group shows, local and international, in renowned art galleries. Her display, with its vibrant colour palette and concrete evocation of nostalgia through paintings, was striking. The work paid tribute to lost time and past memories, conveyed through abstract forms and rough edges. For me, her carnival paintings were especially evocative, recalling childhood memories of seeing such events from a distance in Lahore’s local parks and occasionally in television dramas. The paintings seemed to resurrect bygone moments, akin to holding on to tangible, vintage photographs from a distant past.
Hassan Sheikh’s approach was distinctive in its subject matter. He explained that he sought to visualise his interactions with the stories he grew up hearing. Using mixed media, his paintings depict the merging of two beings – Krishna and himself – and at times the couple, Krishna and Radha, alongside the outer world. He noted that the work also alludes to themes of surveillance, voyeurism and intrusion into private matters, intimate bonds and personal choices.
It was striking to note that the artist recognised the boundaries between reality and fiction, deliberately juxtaposing them in his paintings. This demonstrated his awareness of their coexistence. To me, his work reflected how we engage with, and acknowledge, the presence of imagination and fiction in our lives.
Rehmat Hazara, a visual artist born and raised in Quetta, had explored the complex theme of sexual suppression, drawing inspiration from the Kamasutra. His work featured no clearly defined forms or shapes; yet, when observed from a distance and for long enough, the abstraction seemed to shift and move. The focus was less on physical representation and more on a state of mind overwhelmed by desire, projected onto the unadorned canvas.
Attiya Usman, who holds a master’s degree in graphic design, developed an interest in Indo-Persian miniature art under the mentorship of Ustad Basir Ahmed. Her paintings stood out for their subtle colour palette and distinctive storytelling. Each frame revealed an aspect of the central figure, immortalised within the work. Usman’s miniatures explored themes from a woman’s domestic life, documenting her role in South Asian societies as the binding and sustaining force across various spheres of everyday life. The choice of a pink salt background rooted the narrative firmly in traditional Pakistani culture.
The intricacy of thought behind each piece was evident. Nature-inspired motifs lent the work the feel of a scientific study, examining womanhood as something shaped by both nature and society. An intriguing detail was the layering of diary entries and grocery lists into the background. In her work, the woman’s braid became both a real and symbolic link, connecting human identity, femininity and the cycle of life.
The writer is a lecturer at the Department of English Language and Literature at Kinnaird College, Lahore