Stepping into this massive but serene, purpose-built red-brick building of Beaconhouse National University (BNU), with courtyards open to the natural elements, makes one forget that the pandemic has changed the world. The normal that we once knew might return for good. There is confusion, frustration and constant uncertainty. Despite this, the 16 graduates of BNU’s School of Visual Arts and Design have produced, under the supervision of renowned multi-disciplinary artist, Prof Rashid Rana, the kind of work that is not just diverse and thought-provoking but also multi-sensory in its approach and uses cutting-edge technology alongside traditional painting techniques.

The works on display are grounded in reality and address deeply personal narratives on gender identity, urban landscapes, scripture and cultural norms. As Risham Syed, Aroosa Rana and Ayaz Jokhio put it, “[The works] challenge the status quo, and examine the so-called social boundaries in various poetic forms.”

One of the graduating students, Javeria Chaudhry’s exploration of gender identity is an example of how domesticity is associated with womanhood — i.e., domestic chores and kitchen management. Her installation, titled Inertia that consists of two moving graters brings the viewer to a halt. I was immediately transported back to a memory of my agitated mum preparing food in the kitchen for her family. She had no choice. This is the power of Chaudhry’s kinetic play of “mechanics and technology” where she successfully highlights gender inequality in a society that still stubbornly picks conventional roles for females, males and the transgender persons.

Ahsan Akhtar Kokhar, on the other hand, uses a variety of mediums ranging from sculpture to installation and video art, to recreate his memories of a home through the use of objects that often lose their importance and become redundant with time. In one of his installations, the artist takes an insignificant object such as the talcum powder and casts it in clay. The shape of the talcum powder is a body that resonates with the nation while the use of clay exudes a warmth and closeness. But, paradoxically, these identical, hollow objects are placed in a uniform, military order on a couple of shelves.

Like Chaudhry’s dynamic installations, the viewer here is transported to their forgotten childhood memories where discipline and love were often interlinked within the construct of the home environment.

Ali Arshad, an enthusiastic young artist, merges “social constructs such as gender, sex, and identity to address the theme of nature versus nurture” (his words). Arshad evidently draws from the symbolic, visual imagery of tarot cards by using installations to reveal the “fickle intimacies and intricacies of one’s reality.” His installation, titled The Moon, has a wishing bowl, filled with water, streaming with lilies, comforting texts and reflection of the moon.

The installations make you slow down and contemplate, just like Saad Mehmood’s love of healing scriptures. Trained in calligraphy and inspired by Urdu and Persian scripts and literature, Mehmood ponders over the journey of these age-old scripts in the context of religion and social structures. In his work, Ajmi (an Arabic term for foreigner/ non-Arab), Mehmood creates calligraphic marks that are simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar. These marks, created in black ink, have been intelligently transformed into a pictorial language.

Ahmed Umer Farooqi is concerned about curing urban spaces and architecture that have been sliced ruthlessly due to the follies of mankind. He’s been moved by the development and impact of the controversial Orange Line Metro Train on the environment and the people in its proximity. In his work, titled Deconstruction I, II, Farooqi uses disposable cardboard boxes that have been sliced in half, to show the internal structure of a home making it vulnerable to the elements. He explains, “For me, architecture is ephemeral. We live in houses and then we move, leaving the carcass of the structure behind, either to be occupied by new residents or razed in order to construct something new.”

Izzah Khan questions the psychological impact of spaces (urban or home) on the individual. Her immaculate digital prints are essentially ‘silent’ and devoid of human-ness. The mechanical, rigid prints of familiar urban and home spaces, executed in muted colours, are peaceful but uncomfortable. They are difficult to look at even though Khan uses familiar, ordinary spaces.

Labinta Malik and Baqer Ahmedi’s works afford the viewer a multi-sensory experience where the artists are cast as protagonists in performances through the use of film, photography and classical animation. Malik questions the quiet, ritualistic movements that are taken for granted in the course of our daily lives. Imagine suddenly not being able to walk or move a limb. She highlights basic movements by using the olden methods of animation — by capturing each minute movement in singular frames that allows her to “slow time right to the frame where and when the action happened, making the slightest change obvious.”

Ahmedi uses his ‘bodyscape’ to symbolise the impact of suppression. His multi-layered video installations are raw and emotive. The entities in these installations are subjected to constant humiliation and torture.

Traditional arts can sometimes be neglected but Arham Bin Asif, Riaz Ali and Rimsha Iqbal boldly pursue painting and effectively communicate their concerns. Asif’s paintings, informed by sculpture and the Renaissance, skillfully render the human body in high contrast of light and dark, thereby showcasing the drama of the muscular figure.

Ali uses the surgeon’s theatrics to draw similarities between himself and the surgeon — both meticulously labouring away in remapping the human anatomy.

Iqbal’s paintings are informed by Lahore’s street life. She paints on found objects — for instance, slates used for teaching alphabets — and thus gives them a new identity and connection to the human psyche. In her own words, “…objects from our everyday spaces are more connected to us than we may actually believe.”

The writer is an artist and lecturer at Kinnaird College. She also has a food blog on Instagram: @foodie_treks