BIZ TODAY REPORT
KARACHI: Senior Vice President of Federation of Pakistan Chambers of Commerce and Industry Dr. Mirza Ikhtiar Baig alongwith Founder of ArtKaam Gallery Junaid Hamid and others guest inaugurated “TEEEN” – An exhibition of exquisite artworks by Kiran Saleem, Sadia Safdar & Saleha Qureshi, three fresh graduates from IVS Karachi on Friday April 5th, 2019 at ArtKaam Gallery, Korangi.
This work roots itself from a personal experience of being watched without my consent. Using metal washers as my material, I have constructed curtains that represent the barriers I have placed between me and the outsider. These pieces are attractive yet threatening. Converting cloth into a hard, gritty form, possessing the qualities of an armor or a shield, these pieces are strong but yet fragile at the same time as there is still a possibility of being watched through them. From the nature of the vulnerability of the female body in spaces, emerges my body of work. Artist Kiran Saleem said.
Artist Sadia Safdar daid that the, I have majored in sculpture and miniature painting from indus valley school of art and architecture. It has been two years that I started working with fiber and wire mesh and since then it has become my medium. The process of layering and constructing an image with the material itself was very challenging and enjoyable and got the inspiration from the artists who have worked with mesh wire and grid pattern such as Seung Mo Park, a Korean sculptor who makes portraits out of steel mesh wire through pair of clippers. Also I have looked into artists like Zahoor-ul-Akhkaq and Rashid Rana who have used grid pattern in their art practices and I am especially inspired by Rashid Rana’s work where he works with small fragments and makes it into one visual.
In my work as well the grid itself divides the space into fragments where the viewer when views it from a certain distance can see the image more clearly and as you go closer, the image becomes unclear and you just see the shades and values. The visuals that I chose to depict comes from my own experience of moving through Karachi where I chose to highlight and appreciate the old architecture as well as the space around it which is usually a lot busier with traffic, people and market places which I chose not to show as these become obstructions in appreciating the beautiful architecture and their surroundings. The idea of using mesh along with this subject is also because layering it creates a visual movement which gives the illusion of movement in space where I am also passing through or moving from place to place. Stated Sadia Safdar.
My body of work is a mix of photographs of the sea taken from the window. As a child I visited the sea several times building a connection with it but when I was growing older the connection was limited to my window. In that process all the time spent at the sea as a child faded away. When I moved out of the house after 24 years, the only memory I took of the sea was the view of it through my window.
My paintings depict how the image of the sea that was embedded in my head is fading with time. The blurriness and the darks depict one’s mind. With time the images in our heads fade and blur as life goes on. As it’s said, “Nothing stays forever.” Saleha Quresi said.
The exhibition will continue till April 13, 2019 from 11 am – 7 pm (Monday to Saturday).
