Written by: Shameen Arshad
Posted on: May 28, 2020 | 
Neem (photo credits to Bibi Hajra Cheema)
Bibi Hajra is a Lahore based artist, architect, and lecturer. She graduated with a Bachelor’s degree from the National College of Arts, Lahore (2013) before completing a joint Masters degree in Urban Studies from a consortium of six universities in Brussels, Copenhagen, Vienna, and Madrid, as a recipient of the Erasmus Mundus Scholarship. She has since then been involved in various urban design projects and competitions, both at home and abroad. At present, she gives lectures, and runs a student theatre group by the name of Red Eye, which conducts mime performances around Urban Planning issues.
Bibi’s images are inundated with emotions, expressions, and parallel storylines, as her representation of a multi-faceted community in motion. The artist’s work is not telling viewers what to feel. It simply presents a sea of narratives, and it is up to us to capture what holds the greatest appeal for us, much like a Rorschach test.
This simultaneous unfolding of numerous storylines highlights how life is concurrent, perhaps trying to convince the viewer to adopt a non-linear approach to life, after witnessing Bibi’s constructed microcosm. The work also allows us to read and decide the chronology of the events and interactions within the constructed urban spaces according to our choosing.
Mela Chiraghan (photo credits to Bibi Hajra Cheema)
Hajra’s background in architecture is visible through her play with her detail, perspective, and fascination with how people occupy and take ownership of spaces. The artist claims that her work is about how people show a sense of belonging to a space through their behaviour and relationship with their surroundings.
Her images present the world as a chaotic, crowded, and spirited place. Bibi has packaged everyday visuals onto one surface, making her pieces pressure-packed and overwhelming. It takes some time to immerse oneself in the world of these caricatures. However, once the viewer is fully engrossed, it takes a while to emerge. One is not given enough time to digest each scene, before moving onto something that is happening in proximity.
The vast range of emotions embodied by her characters excites the viewer. Some faces are uncanny and otherworldly, others are pure and innocent. They seem to exist in a broad spectrum between tranquillity or frenzy. Those who take the time to understand her piece as a whole, gradually feel as though they could study or “really see” the life that thrives within her cityscapes.
Bibi’s characters show us the numerous possibilities within a space and how each character interacts with it. Her maternity ward in “gynaecology department on low fee Thursday”, shows us an incompetent attendant snoozing on a desk, while a woman experiences labour pains around the corner. A moment that is monotonous for one, is life changing for another. It also captures those light-hearted moments where kids are sent off to distract themselves with fish in an aquarium, while the mother is in pain. In this case, both the fish and mother don’t look amused.
Gynaecology department on low fee Thursday (photo credits to Bibi Hajra Cheema)
Deciphering Hajra’s playful images reminds one of the “spot the difference” games published in newspapers. The drawings feel like an adult version of those games, in which what we find is not always joyful.
There is a theatrical quality about the work, but it is not pretentious. Her illustrations are seemingly simple but built with a million layers, like reality. Sometimes the art pieces also give us space to imagine a whole new world different from ours, such as in “Canal day doojay paar (The Other Side of the Canal)”. The canal, a sight usually inundated by males, is being occupied by people who are not males, cannot easily venture outside unnoticed. She allows the viewer to imagine a world or a moment that is not determined by patriarchal customs.
Canal Day Doojay Par (photo credits to Bibi Hajra Cheema)
Similarly, dark humour has long been a tool for artists to come to terms with difficult topics. It is an effective way to drive home a serious and grave matter through a light chuckle. Such a tactic certainly works in Bibi’s images. The artist’s drawings reflect on many “controversial” or “difficult” topics that might not be otherwise met with great enthusiasm from the public, had they not have been so detailed and colourful.
Even though Bibi’s characters are loud, prominent personalities, their ability to mix in the crowd prevents the topic from being too obvious. The complex and dynamic nature of the drawings depends on what we see, and what we take away from them. This is where the artist can make her point known, but also say, “It’s simply an observation. It’s not personal, I just make what I see.”
Bibi Hajra (photo credits to Dawn)
The artist started with oil on paper, but successively seems to be stripping her images of colour and other embellishments, leaving the piece to its bare bones. It almost seems as the artist’s growing confidence makes the use of colour superfluous to her practice.
It is going to be interesting to see how Bibi’s work changes after the experience of living through a pandemic and consequent lockdown. In conversation, this topic is of seemingly major concern to the artist, as she wonders how she or other individuals would perceive complexity and personal stories of joy and pain in a post COVID-19 world.
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