Imagine a world where the threat of disease occupies much of our thinking. Imagine a world devoid of human contact, a world where the virtual replaces the actual, and where the stuff of science fiction novels and movies becomes a reality. Such is the Covid-19 world. Isn’t it?

For over a year now, every newspaper under the sun has been carrying stories about the coronavirus pandemic on their front pages. TV programmes and radio channels are giving back-to-back coverage on the latest death tolls. The social media platforms have been full of frightening statistics, practical advice and dark humour. This constant bombardment of information (as well as disinformation) can easily result in heightened anxiety with immediate effects on one’s mental health. At the Fine Arts Degree Show 2020 of the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore, the students exhibited an array of paintings, sculptures, prints, miniature paintings, installations and mix media works that betrayed the anxiety of the times we’re living in, albeit with fresh perspectives.

Suddenly, the everyday, the mundane, and the ignored took on a new meaning. A painting by Ashir Talpur of drainage pipes on a wall is a prime example of the very commonplace. Talpur, with his painstakingly exquisite rendering, makes the ordinary extraordinary. It’s as if the pipes suddenly come ‘alive’ and can be felt in the moment. In the artist’s own words: “I’ve focused on my surroundings and their impact on my senses. I’ve painted these objects consciously, with attention to detail, thereby attributing a sense of worth and value to them.”

Like the rest of the world, these students found themselves confined within the four walls of their homes which forced them to reflect deep while also dealing with close relationships that otherwise would have been ignored in the humdrum of pre-corona days. Hence, themes of mental health, identity, gender, urbanisation, natural environment, and the culture of consumerism and the experience of the ritualistic are recurrent in their artworks.

Salman Qamar addresses mental health and its effects on human behaviour in his work. His mix-medium paintings are an endeavour in transporting the unconscious, suppressed emotions and bringing them back into conscious awareness. Here, he magnifies the familiar urban spaces in vivid, flat colours depicting repressed childhood experiences, perhaps in order to come to terms with them. In his own words: “I’ve tried to combine both the conscious and the unconscious by perceiving them in the form of shapes, colours and scales. The imagery is coherent and raw in nature.”

Themes of mental health, identity, gender, urbanisation, natural environment, and the culture of consumerism and the experience of the ritualistic have emerged in their artworks.

Maryam Umar, on the other hand, debates the value of being a woman in a patriarchal society which is desperately trying to hold on to age-old traditions. Using performance art, video installations, text and sculpture in the form of wearable garments, Umar asks the very pertinent question: “When will we realise that being a woman is not being a lesser human?”

By her own admission, much of Umar’s work “reflects domestic violence, inequality, cultural differences, injustice and a series of socio-political events occurring in my region.”

Her laser-engraved text on wooden chopping boards, that defines women as domestic utensils, makes a unique metaphor.

Some students seem to have chosen the language of tradition in a contemporary way. For instance, in Muhammad Ali’s miniature paintings, mythological beasts are used as protagonists in his battle between the external and internal temptations.

Ali says he has “channelised these temptations through the use of miniature elements in order to maintain a curiosity via chaotic representation.”

A majority of the work on display has been created in an anxious state and maybe as a result, the thread of loneliness seems to be a recurring theme. Hosiery, threads, and large fallen sculptures, almost dead to the world, dominate the theme of being forced into seclusion. This is especially true of Sana Hussain’s installation where she innovatively uses women’s hoisery and human hair, stretched in an embroidery ring. Muhammad Mohsin Attiq uses abstract forms of iron wire on bukaram cloth, while Hamza Tariq, with his photo-realistic painting of his feet, or Bisma Hussain’s painting, titled Apart, and Durrie Baloch’s Mother depict how the self was suddenly visible in a new domestic light.

Relationships and everyday rituals have been re-examined. Sawali Haseem’s print, titled Oral Hygiene, where he shows himself absorbed in the act of brushing his teeth, while facing and not yet facing the viewer, is a significant example in this regard.

On the other hand, Maisam Hussain Zerane, having to move back to his hometown Parachinar, had to deal with the harsh realities of living in a war-hit area. Using graphite and gun powder, Hussain’s sensitive drawings of landscapes, embedded in bullet marks, are a testament to the atrocities and the power of conflict on the human psyche. As he puts it, “I have witnessed bullets being fired with dust filling the air. The bullet holes still haunt me. They’ve scarred me for life.”

When we look at the works displayed in the Fine Art Degree Show 2020, we are oblivious to the long and anxious journey through which these artworks have been created. To quote art columnist and former head of the Fine Arts Department of NCA, Quddus Mirza, “Although the problems of space, lack of human contact, and unavailability of resources posed a hindrance, the works presented at the culmination of their degree course reflect how art can still conquer demons like Covid-19. Artists are capable of producing images that take us away from our immediate reality, not as an escape but by providing a new point of view into our same old, sometimes terrible reality.”

The writer is an artist and lecturer at Kinnaird College. She tweets @saimamunawar