September 27, 2003

In an exhibition of her work at the V.M. Gallery titled Reach and Search, Rabia Tahmina Shoaib includes an installation, a collection of pastel and acrylic work, several paper works referred to as ‘Pages From My Diary’ and six wall-based relief pieces collectively summed up as the ‘Death Squad’. Much of the work continues the undergoing examination of subjects the artist has been engaged in since the her degree show viewed in 2000.

The installation Read in the Name of the Lord begins from an inscribed concave mirror, an allusion to ‘finding oneself’, the metal circlet, which we first viewed at an exhibition at the Alliance Francaise in 2001. Placed on a wall it overlooks a continuation in an arrangement of tiny oil lamps and inscribed, baked clay discs, which the artist describes as ‘homage to readers and seekers of the truth’.

A circle of twelve aluminium sculpted pieces on metal stands examine certain words which to the uninitiated appear as abstract shapes. This is not a new development, nor has it the impact of earlier installations in which the science-educated artist recreated chillingly realistic ‘laboratories’ to ‘measure’ qualities of flawed human beings. Yet continuing as it does her concerns for ‘light and truth’, most importantly, she takes the opportunity to experiment with the media and the third dimension.

After earning an MSc. from Karachi University, Rabia joined the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture and graduated with a BFA in 2000 with distinction standing in first position for her thesis and overall work. The same year she was accorded the Sadequain Award, and went on to participate in several group shows until her first solo exhibition was held at the Alliance Francaise in 2001. Other shows followed including the 8th National Visual Arts Exhibition held in Lahore in May this year.

The current display marks the artist’s second solo display but one expects much more in times ahead from this unusual and interesting artist.

A collection of non-figurative forms employs a visual language inclined to abstraction. Focusing on organic looking shapes executed in a feathery approach with pastels on acrylic backgrounds, they are untitled, offering no clues. The artist is inclined to reticence concerning this series describing the dark centred forms as ‘subconscious projections’. Floating in space the unconnected shapes have numerous possible layers of meaning and every viewer may find they correspond to a dredged memory of his/her own.

Another group of paintings has been likened by another viewer as resembling ‘red blood corpuscles’ not a far fetched concept for the artist whose symbols are often unexplained and steeped in science.

Rabia attempts to lead her work into new avenues by recording issues and events and her reactions to them in her ‘Diary’ series. She attended a workshop in Delhi recently which looked at subjects such as women in peace, security management and conflict resolution, and found the opportunity to discuss vital matters with women from other cultures and countries — an important learning experience.

In a lighter mood, she recorded a journey through Dubai, Sharjah and Al-Ain with three, track-marked, colour-stained and handmade paper pieces supported by seven smaller works coloured in shades of sand.

Separately hung was the Death Squad sequence beginning with the three-dimensional ‘Gajrat’ piece. Contrived of decaying ‘gajaras’, the bracelets of jasmine that scent the air, were suspended from a sere wood branch; tiny plastic ‘corpses’ strewn among the fallen blossoms littered the floor of the glass cube containing the work. Of the sequence, this, to me, was the most moving perhaps due to the personal aspect and the inclusion of the delicate dead flowers.

A horde of tiny turtles are engulfed in viscous matter in Oil Spill made of sand, oil and plastic. Another image refers to the Target and Flag series of Jasper Johns, using paper, wax and plastercine. A blood-stained glove, disembodied clay features, bowls of red substance (blood) and oil remind the viewer of a disturbed and chaotic world without norms.

So the young artist exhibiting several moods and methods, appears representative of human beings since time began, concerned with the world in general and in her own environment in particular, unable to change things and seeking inner peace and harmony, as it reflected through her varying work.