KARACHI: What is a story? Answer: a series of events that has a plot and characters which more often than not moves forward with a conflict.

Life is full of conflicts and hence artists use the word story to define and redefine life. A three-person show that commenced at the Koel Art Gallery on Thursday has the title ‘The story must go on’. But what the viewer gets to see here is not a tale that goes a long, long way back. Rather, there is insightful contemporariness to it that is linked with the past in a roundabout way.

S. M. Raza and Salman Hassan are two artist friends who, it seems, see existence with a slight difference of opinion… in reaching the same conclusion. The first exhibit on display ‘A Midnight’s Dream’ (silk screen on paper) is collaborative in execution, yet the symbolism and the artists’ approach to creating art hint at the fact that they like to keep their distinct identities intact despite being on the same psychological wavelength.

For Salman, in this show, fish and text are the two main elements that constitute his artworks. The fish, of course, symbolises fertility and knowledge, and the Urdu text points at the artist’s fondness for the world of poetry and prose. What he does nicely is that by smudging and blurring the text he talks about the decadence that has taken place in society, both in terms of wisdom and understanding.

An artwork by Fatima Munir

Raza, on the other hand, picks the transformational aspect of things by chiefly focusing on city life. His digital painting ‘In Absence of the Sun’ speaks volumes for his ability to surprise the viewer, but it is the piece called ‘Blocks’ that is evidence of his fecund imagination. On the one hand he is trying to make a statement on the metamorphosis of how things function in today’s world, on the other, he is abundantly aware how not to lose the aesthetics that life intrinsically entails.

Fatima Munir makes it clear with her embroidered effort that the society we’re all part of is marred by contradictions. At the same time, these contradictions can also have a certain cuteness to them which dilutes the bitterness of it all.

The exhibition will remain open till Oct 31.

Published in Dawn, October 24th, 2014