June 7, 2003

All through history, with few exceptions, the print was considered an intimate art form enjoyed by the few. Crucial changes in the 20th century altered its status and appreciation levels remarkably. It all started with the Lautrec posters when the print began to grow in size and change in character. By the mid-20th century artists all over the world were enthusiastically working and experimenting with such a variety of techniques that today practically any effect is possible.

Here at home exhibitions based entirely on prints are a rarity. Printmaking enjoys marginal viewership and remains one of the lesser understood mediums. This perhaps is a disservice to the dedicated printmakers who are forging ahead despite the odds. Frequent print exhibitions can familiarize audiences with the nature of the medium and encourage the much needed ‘dialogue’ with the work on display.

Such an opportunity was accorded to viewers by Karachi’s V.M. Art Gallery with the opening of a display of mono prints, collographs and etchings by Sairah Ali Dada.

As a daughter of a career diplomat Sairah’s childhood was spent in different countries and the global exposure comes through in her work. Coupled with this her enthusiasm, great sense of fun and a well read sensibility endow her prints with a quirky daring edge. A monochrome black-and-white exhibition needs more than surface appeal to retain viewer’s engagement. Sairah takes on the challenge of the creative effort with gusto.

It was while she was reading about Picasso and Fracoise Gilot that she conceived her still life arrangements of plants and flowers. The organic nature of her elements, their composition and treatment have a strong European flavour. Works titled Monaco, Iris Blue, Bowl with Asters, etc., are collographic prints.

Like the metal graphic process collography is an additive method where the printing surface is created by gluing various materials and textures to a support. Tonal areas are built by saw dust, sand or ground walnut shells but today with the varieties of new materials available the possibilities are limitless. Sairah’s experiments with granular texture and linear forms are integral to the final ‘look’ of her works in these still arrangements.

A series of monoprints focusing on profiles of women and their right of self-expression work at once on a subjective note and an objective level. Her Tahira, Goddess of Rights is suitably emphatic in look and stance and could also be an expression of an inner assertion.

In a monoprint an artist paints on various surfaces such as metal, plastic and glass, either with rubbing or with an etching press. The primary reason for making a monoprint is that, in offsetting the image from the plate to the paper, the print achieves a separate quality and luminosity totally unlike a painting made directly on paper. Most printmakers enjoy the process of the ‘accidental’ effects common to this medium.

Sairah develops ideas from diverse sources with a genuine curiosity. They can come from a bestseller she has just read, the world situation, an exotic locale or even old snapshots. A print The Ukraine Carpet Shop was entered in The Alternative Energy Art Competition in Texas, USA, in 2002 where it received an honour mention. Discomfiture and loneliness of political exile is expressed in the faces and body language of the two Ukrainian emigres in this print and its technical treatment is soft ground etching.

In this process lines or textures are bitten (etched) into a metal plate with a variety of acids. The metal plate is first covered with an acid resistant coating. The design is then scratched or pressed, often with textured materials, into the ground exposing the metal in these areas. Finally, the plate is submerged in an acid solution until the desired depth and width in the exposed areas is reached. The technique lends itself well to collage-type effects on the plate which are also markedly visible in Sairah’s print.

Other striking prints include Calling Nkongolo in sugar lift and The Rocking Horse a nursery print in etched toproll. Both works carry a lively spontaneity and imaginative use of line, motif and composition.

What seems missing in Sairah’s work is a lack of any reference to our own culture as she addresses a general, global audience. Sairah is an intelligent observer and could well bring fresh interpretations to the issues of concern here at home.

“I was interested in the process,” is how she describes her option for this subject after enrolling in NCA. Being a student of science also helped her to understand the chemical nature of the genre. She graduated in 1993.

Working in this medium seems to have some obvious limitations at present. When it comes to the finer points of printmaking Sairah laments that “the excitement can only be felt with other printmakers.” Another hindrance to its common practice is the expense involved in maintaining a functional studio. Artist potters and creative ceramists also have the same grouse.