Theses exhibition of IVS graduating students concludes

The arrival of December may not always mark the onset of winters in Karachi but it surely means that budding artists are ready to showcase their thesis works at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS).

Artworks made by the graduating students of IVS in the fields of fine arts, textiles, architecture, interior design and communication design were on display at the school from December 4 to December 8.

Using the dinner table as a prop to project the idea of fostering relationships, fine arts student Ammerah Shoaib Motiwala’s ‘Home for Dinner’ comprised of large-scale paintings which showed dinner setups and a chair with a pile of clothes on it, among others.

Zainab Muhammad Shiekhbhoy used the idea of the cityscape in her project ‘Karachi’ to help the viewers experience multiple perspectives of the city. The artist uses videos on segmented surfaces to give the feel of Karachi’s buildings and roads as well as the seashore.

It was fascinating to see ‘Brain Fog’ by Raahima Memon which documented her own journey following the diagnosis of having a damaged eardrum caused by a sinus infection. Her struggle of coping up with restlessness and memory loss led to her thesis work. The depiction of everyday objects like a bottle of dishwashing liquid or a cold medicine and her attempt to find them by tracking them with some set markers was visible in the frames.

The project titled ‘Pardah/Chaddar’ by Zainab Abdul Hussain gave another dimension to the ‘Rida’ worn by women of the Dawoodi Bohra Community. Zainab sketched various pieces which showed how objects around us are covered by a cloth. She also made some crafty miniature sketches to represent the same idea.

Using video footage, artist Syeda Anousha Hassan’s depiction of violence was a heart-wrenching one. The artist had divided her exhibition space into halves, with the first showing the video footage of a blast targeting a Muharram procession on a screen with two chairs put in front of it. The setup was perhaps hinting at the real life scenario when the family of a deceased witnesses the calamity in horror from their own homes sitting in front of a television. The second area had dozens of pairs of sculpted feet lying on the ground with white sheets splattered with blood around them on the walls.

This year the students of communication design explored themes of bullying, child marriage, gender equality and cyber surveillance. Tehreem Iqbal’s ‘Bachay Seekh Rahay Hain’ aims at telling parents how their arguments can shape their children’s mind and ways to avoid such instances.

Another project ‘Kuch Aap Kuch Main — Tum Ho Mere Saath’ appeared to be a much needed take on the idea of balance in a heterosexual relationship. Using comics as well as posters, the artist presented situations where men tend to ignore the schedules and commitments of their working partners and expect them to live according to the stereotypical gender roles. The idea hopes to instil the realisation and responsibility among men that it takes two people to carry any relationship further in harmony.

In order to preserve history, Sheema Maaz’s ‘Forgotten Front’ narrated the stories of Indians citizens who served in the armed forces during World War II. Addressing gender identity issues faced by children, Anain Sheikh’s ‘Murat’ hopes to start a dialogue among people so children at schools or other places would be taught to accept those different than them.

“Guriya Ki Shaadi’ used videos as well as other resources to tell people about the consequences of early marriages pertaining to health as well as other issues.

Minhal Rana’s thesis ‘Online’, a chilling narrative on cyber privacy, highlighted the need for users to monitor what information they are feeding into their devices or putting online because one’s digital footprint tends to be permanent. Students belonging to interior design studies explored the idea of building a Partition museum, a shelter for stray dogs as well as a resort at Bhit Khori in Balochistan.