Written by: Nayha Jehangir Khan
Posted on: September 20, 2021 | 
| 中文
The Night Has A Thousand Eyes I by Amna Suheyl (Credits to O Art Space, Lahore)
The art exhibition "Spinning and Unspinning - The Art of the Storyteller" curated by Laila Rahman, has a collection of prints by Dua Abbas, Saulat Ajmal, Zara Asgher, Fatima Haider, Sehr Jalil, Madyha Leghari, Natasha Malik, Anushka Rustomji, Fatima Saeed, Sahyr Sayed, and Amna Suheyl. Rehman is inviting the viewer to pause and reflect on the origins and construction of a tale. The showcase has whimsical compositions, illustrative elements, a cast of protagonists, abstraction and figuration that keeps the viewer engaged with each piece. Each artist might have a different perspective and visual methodology. Yet, together, these works bring forth a strong sense of tactile exploration that brings the materiality of printmaking techniques to the surface.
Historically, when we survey the impact of printmaking, we get to know that they take a natural slow route towards eminence. The "Los Caprichos" was a famous collection of 80 prints created by Spanish artist Francisco Goya in aquatint and etching dating back to 1797-1798, which were overlooked at the time. Over the centuries, they have embodied the spirit of visual storytelling. They captured the intangible, ephemeral, dark humor, and societal conflict that is still an inspiration to artists, writers, and creatives worldwide. The exhibition "Spinning and Unspinning - The Art of the Storyteller" is a unified voice of 11 female artists, openly sharing their politics, spirituality, philosophy, and life experiences through their art.
The Night Has A Thousand Eyes II by Amna Suheyl (Credits to O Art Space, Lahore)
The painterly diptych by Amna Suheyl titled "The Night Has A Thousand Eyes I and II", depicts an Ophelia-like character who is in a state of dreaming in the first piece, and is shown floating through an expanse of flowers in the other. The paintings have a strong metaphorical reading choosing to illuminate the protagonist, indicating that her mind is active, even though she is unconscious. This is an instantly recognizable feeling for women who are unable to change their environments, choosing to move inward and disassociating themselves entirely from their surroundings.
Her Stories as a Ad Hoc House by Dua Abbas (Credits to O Art Space, Lahore)
Dua Abbas has a group of works marked "Her Stories as an Ad Hoc" in second-person, visualizing stories she had heard from another female in her life. Her great-aunt is mentioned as a source of inspiration for these artworks. We follow her through labyrinths, bridges, stairwells, and aerial views of crop circles imagined, capturing the dramatic style of her narration. Similarly, Madyha Leghari has created a cinematic reel of images, where her protagonist experiences various kinds of turbulence, anxiety, stress, and destruction to break through communication challenges.
Night falls, as if from a height by Madhya Leghari (Credits to O Art Space, Lahore)
"She's a Pulsar" is a profound reflection that Sehr Jalil shares from exploring Quranic verses. Her work reads, "She's A Pulser A Morning Star, She Dies, Lives And Is Born Of Light Spins As A Light Beam City In The Darkest Black, Transcends Through Other Bodies In Light, Even Her Failures Were Rewarded With Light". The writing feels immediate, and creates a kind of portrait of the female spirit with its poetic rendering. Another monochrome piece with powerful emotive quality is Haider's "Here," which uses Graphite on Paper to create a heavy solid object at the center that is deliberately smeared, creating a pull and push effect through ghostly shadows.
She's a Pulsar by Sehr Jalil (Credits to O Art Space, Lahore)
Weaving and stitching together a story into one image, can be a daunting task. Still, in the works by Zara Asgher and Anushka Rustomji, the viewer can see the confidence and unapologetic stance that the artists take to share their political views. "The Keepers" by Asgher, shows the overlapping arms stretched across the page, creating a gathering of faceless men being viewed from above. The image is striking as we instantly recognize that these men are gathered to cover the center, which we culturally associate with women of the home. Hanging next to Rustomji's "The Musibat of Monumental Men" shows the broken limbs of statues of colonizers being swept away with the waves of time. Both the images have a strong resolution to highlight societal reality and changes.
The Keepers by Zara Asghar (Credits to O Art Space, Lahore)
The serenity of Saulat Ajmal's triptych titled "Subtle Inflections", "Sugar Coated", and "High Tide" use ink, pen, and oil on paper to create sensual paintings that evoke the sensibility of fabric, foliage and folklore. The mystical quality of the work goes beyond the iteration of a linear story and has a multidirectional take on creating a narrative. The viewer is invited to walk into the paintings where the natural laws are suspended, and replaced with fragments in motion, creating a relationship between all three works of art.
High Tide by Saulat Ajmal (Credits to O Art Space, Lahore)
The gilded diptych tiles of Fatima Saeed titled "If only we knew- I and II", have embossed lettering that is recognizably scripture with a section at the center in a flux of movement created using a marbling effect. The traditional elements are arranged together to create a social commentary on two disconnected planes of existence. The gold signifies the absolute and permanent, whereas the fluid center is unable to fully merge with its environment, creating a conflict between the two.
If only we knew I by Fatima Saeed (Credits to O Art Space, Lahore)
Sahyr Sayed's exploration is intimate, and captures the challenges experienced by women in their domesticated spaces. Her work has a profound sense of pain that is visually explored in pieces such as "Fragmented Fatigue I and II" that are manicured to perfection, as if hiding the brutality and struggle of everyday life behind the perfectly arranged interior of the home.
Fragmented Fatigue I by Sahyr Sayed (Credits to O Art Space, Lahore)
The exhibition leaves the viewer feeling fully immersed in each artistic reality, resulting in an altered psychological space. The spaces crafted within each visualization have vulnerability, strength and courage that are shared with the viewer. The exhibition opened on 10th September 2021, and will end on 20th September 2021 at O Art Space, Lahore.
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