July 6, 2002

There is a move among a section of artists in the west to extend ‘art into life’— never more apparent than when faced with the contenders for the controversial, but financially impressive, Turner Prize. Latest efforts include a glass of water placed on the floor, a lead cast of a fried chicken meal and in a museum, changing a seat colour in a lecture hall and re-arranging the setting of a cafe.

Fiona Banner from Liverpool particularly impressed the jurists with a series of giant full stops. “The viewer is forced to negotiate these free standing works placed directly on to the gallery floor, punctuating space as they might a block of text like pause in speech.” All in all, I prefer the concept of Tracey’s bed.

Apart from forays into untapped dimensions by art students which seldom have a life in the world outside school, young modern artists in Karachi generally tend to look upon life around them with a deeply concerned, pragmatic vision, which they express in diverse methods and vocabularies. The most recent example of this phenomenon is to be found at an exhibition shown at the Chawkandi gallery, which examines the first solo exhibition of paintings by Fizza Haider.

The young artist, whose multipartite configurations carry an unmistakable social content, has an impressive academic background. She graduated in 2000 as a place holder with a Master’s degree in fine art from the Punjab University and is currently a lecturer in fine art with the DHA College for Women.

Fizza describes her teaching career as ‘very rewarding’ and the interaction with the students stimulating.

The aesthetic problem she strives with is that of fusing Abstract Expressionism, coming from an inner landscape, with Realism. Interpreting what is seen in a third dimensional world with the spontaneous method was considered by its early practitioners as important as the painting itself. Examining the isolation that appears to surround human beings in general, the artist employs a vocabulary of symbols. A repeated configuration of figures stretched in anguish, parodying classical dance poses; recurring image of a solitary, anguished infant, and arabesques floating in space.

A less austere note is introduced by a sequence of portraits circled in sun-like halos — perhaps allegorical symbols of life. The assuredly painted forms are grounded on surfaces densely worked by palette knife in a coarsely uneven method. This technique gives rise to a minutia of shades, pinpoints of light and darker areas. The variation in the balance and the placing of the forms strikes at the very root of harmony.

The questions raised by reality as the artist perceives it become the unifying linkages of the emerging theme. Fizza’s tentative narrative leaves conclusions open-ended, ensuring a dispute still in progress for the continuance of further artistic probing. She leaves the viewer with a message supporting her work:

“Aloof, Indifferent, Disinterested, Unemotional, Cold, Desolate, Despondent, Uncaring, Disconnected...

“...Detached!!

“Welcome to life as we know it.

“A sense of detachment prevails in all spheres of life. It has not been handed down to us, in fact we have created it and sadly enough, we yearn for it.

“The paintings in this collection portray this predicament and ask a very simple question: Haven’t you had enough?”

Who will answer the young artist?