“By this book I wanted the world to know that what an extraordinary artist Meher Afroz is. She is an amazing artist and her story needed to be told.” – Niilofur Farrukh
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An eminent art critic, curator and author, Niilofur Farrukh is a prominent name in the art fraternity. And, so is Meher Afroze. Both women, besides being friends for a long time, have contributed to the art world in many ways. Now, after harbouring the idea to publish this book since 20 years, Niilofur and Meher recently came out with their book titled A Beautiful Despair: The Art and Life of Meher Afroz.
This book does not follow the tedious or repetitious style of comprehension as Niilofur wanted to present it in an extraordinary way. She denounced the ordinary style of monographs of artists and decided to invite 16 writers from art and culture background to shed light upon Meher’s work through an analytical lens and divulge the layers of her art, journey and dexterities.
A visually pleasing book cover also holds connotation and purpose to readers to feel the manuscript. Meher’s Gulistan Hamara and Aap Beti were selected as the book cover. These works are very personal to her and holds a profound meaning. When one touches the book cover, they can actually feel the texture which has been a big part of Meher’s work. It was a mutual idea of Niilofur and Meher to juxtapose it with printed textures to create something remarkable which was executed by Sabiha Imani as a designer of the book. Furthermore, Niilofur added that she couldn’t get a credible publisher until she met Naseer Baloch of Le Topical Pvt Ltd. Amid the pandemic, things slowed down the process, but her pure intentions that helped her pull it off.
Comprising on sixteen articles from the writers, one would get to see wondrous works produced over the years, her pictures from her archives, and of course a beautiful picture of the two friends, a reflection of their bond.
The book discourses many styles, techniques, radiance of her oeuvre and decodes the layers that Meher’s works have. Belonging to Lucknow, Meher’s aura speaks of her cultural background which is also embedded in her work. She takes inspirations from verses and Urdu words which she embodies visually. She believes that words in Urdu language have deep meanings that embrace a whole life in it and she can produce a number of series by just taking up a single word. Hence, the writers took up an idea of starting the articles with Urdu poetry.
Her art trajectory reflects melancholy, inner-conflicts and a sense of displacement. Her migration from India to Pakistan in ’70s was a tough decision for her to make which brought a drastic but a positive change in her life. The title, A Beautiful Despair, also suggests the hardships, sadness and loneliness of Meher when she was shifting the gears of her life.
Moreover, the process of making a voice as an artist in the art fraternity of Pakistan was not an easy task for her when she came to the country; setting up a studio with a shoe string budget, looking for art materials, coping up with personal feeling of loss and confusion. But despair shaped in beauty when she realised her strengths as an artist. She was not hungry for fame, limelight or success but her true purpose was to become an artist and not let her inner-conflicts denounce her abilities and skills. Thus, her art practice grew; the narrative became stronger and extremely layered and rich.
The selection of the write-ups was again a protracted process; however in the end the writers marvellously did justice to the artist’s work by focusing on different features of her work; Sufism, culture, texture, layers, and etc.
Her works are personal conversations that are shaped in colours, tones, textures that speak the truth about sadness that she further decorates with Urdu poetry to blow life in it.
Aasim Akhtar, Amra Ali, Aisha Gazdar, Anoli Perera, Aquila Ismail, Atteqa Ali, Fehmida Riaz, Laila Rahman, Romilla Kareem, Savita Apte, Salman Asif, Salima Hashmi, Shazia Zuberi, Waheeda Baloch and Zehra Hamdani Mirza and Niilofur Farrukh have contributed and critically scratched the rich and radiant layers of her work in each article.
The book is so opulently flavoured that it does not confine a reader to one subject as each veil of Meher’s work has a different flavour. The intriguing part of the book is that every writer somehow became her voice. It feels like she is telling her narrative in different voices, ways, and characters which when combines together become Meher’s life and art trajectory.
Whoever has observed Meher’s work meticulously would know that there is still so much more to decipher, each layer descends into hundreds of meanings which only an extraordinary artist could create. This brilliant culmination is also a reminder to the art writers, critics, art schools and institutes to come forward and realise the importance of documenting such artists who are creating history to help upcoming art students and researchers.
