Karachi For young art majors, who graduate with specialisation in a certain art discipline, experimenting with different, completely unrelated mediums from their forte is like threading an unchartered territory. But once they dive in their professional lives, the urge for variation is too strong to quell. Because the search for the ‘perfect expression’ for their concept and ideas begin to haunt them and in a bid to placate the irresistible urge they leave their self-assured zone in the conquest to communicate their ideas in the best form possible, breaking themselves free from the inherent limitations of their pet mediums. The art exhibition ‘Porous Discipline’, which opened on Tuesday in KSA Gallery, is a celebration of this idea. It is a collection of works by young artists who were tempted to stride away from their home mediums and lay their hands on something different in search of the ideal expression. The group exhibition is a complex mixture of some impressive and some not-so-impressive works. But one of the artists, Caryn Frank, surely stands out. She chose polythene bags as her medium and came up with a piece ‘Camouflage’, which is quite a deep work on “losing ones individuality”, a signature theme in our society. In the frame, women in veils are seen with children. The beauty of the work is such that from a distance the installation looks carved in metal, but it’s made of cheap pumped polythene bags. The piece immediately makes a mysterious impact on the beholder. The piece is arguably the best in the exhibition. A majority of the artists in the exhibition have a playful approach to their works, which makes one feel that there is a sense of non-commitment attached to their effort. Like one artist Raheela Abro who presented an ‘oil on wood’ piece wrote on her statement: “We (awam) have no sense to choose our king [sic], that’s why we get Kaddu to make us Kaddu.” The piece is a wooden chessboard, with a pumpkin
adorning a turban at the centre painted with oil. Another artist, Sheema Khan, who specialised in miniature painting, worked on the concept of ‘disturbance’ in life that stems from absence. She attempted to relate her two installations: a pigeon-house like photo frame with missing photographs and a Tasbee. “The dialogue between the two things is very obvious,” she says, “whenever there is a funeral we recite Tasbee, so it is used as a metaphor of act and react [sic],” she said. In all, the ongoing show seems more like an event arranged to encourage young artists than the exhibition of some serious artwork. The participating artists are: Fariha Nadir, Natasha Iqbal, Nosheen Iqbal, Raheela Abro, Caryn Frank and Sheema Khan. The exhibition will continue till September 30.
