KARACHI: Isn’t it an interesting title for an art exhibition: ideas are black and white? It is. Now replace the word ‘ideas’ with ‘dreams’. Doesn’t it augment the effect of the whole concept? It does.

But that’s not what artist Ayaz Jokhio wants. Therefore, the latest body of his work, captioned Ideas are black & white, which went on display at the Koel Art Gallery on Thursday, remains meaningfully understated and all the more impactful.

Nang, Photos: White Star

There’s a reason why Ayaz has employed charcoal on paper in six of the seven artworks in the exhibition. They place truth in its correct perspective, without frills, without colours, without the kind of strokes that either intellectualise or beautify context. This does not insinuate that the artist keeps things less arty and more to the point. His art is the point that he’s trying to make.

‘Chhatri’, for example, is an umbrella that does not prevent people from getting soaked to their bones. Let’s not use the rain reference here, instead discuss the floods that wreaked havoc in the country a few years back. Water, in general terms, is a symbol of life. But Ayaz’s piece reminds the viewer of a famous T. S. Eliot poem in which ‘death by water’ is referenced. The artist is turning reality into a symbolic existence.

Chhatri, Photos: White Star

His artistic prowess comes to the fore with ‘Gaadi’. The view is that of a car whizzing by and from which nothing can be seen as an image that is still or inert. Everything is unclear, fuzzy. The fuzziness, however, is not related to the movement (read: speed) of the vehicle; it’s about the inertia caused by societal shortcomings. The artwork ‘Nang’ bares it all. The braided rope (or is it someone’s hair?) looks like a slithering creature, a creature that can also be described as a reptilian Fran­kenstein. Perhaps that would be stretching the interpretation way too far. So there’s no harm in understanding the painting just as it is: a charcoal-on-paper artwork.

The exhibition will run till April 27.

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2015

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