KARACHI, July 7: Through a sequence of mark making an artist discovers his language. Most viewers are oblivious to this arduous process. That apparently effortless stroke could have taken years to achieve. And that seemingly mundane subject would have taken years to conceive. It is said that in theory there is no difference between theory and practice, however, when it comes to practice there is. This saying is attributed to so many that it is now irrelevant who said it. Because it is so true.

The exhibition of works by Howard Hodgkin, which opened on Saturday at the Canvas Gallery in collaboration with the British Council, appear so simple. Yet, things that seem so simple in idea take the form of a complex relationship between practice and the subject. When the viewer enters the equation, with his baggage of culture and memory, the relationship becomes further intricate.

When confronted by “Indian Tree”, in which strokes of red and green shape the tree and its atmosphere, I revisited the coconut trees in my memory, which are such an integral part of the Karachi landscape. Their daunting leaves swaying in the sea breeze often tangled in electric wires, threatening to cause more harm than good. I reminded myself, this was not Pakistani art, and the artist’s experience of the tree was perhaps very different.

While we gauge the inflation with the cost of mangoes, it is perhaps safe to say that one's surroundings not only lend to art making, but also shape the meanings we derive from art. This dialogue between there and here is so crucial, which is precisely why it is so important for it to be shown to the Pakistani audience at this point in time where a majority of the Pakistani art is engaged with issues of terrorism, insecurity, violence and other socio-political issues. Not to undermine the importance of their dialogue, because ones surroundings define ones vocabulary invariably. However, many artists adopt a journalistic approach towards their expression, thus creating a hiatus between the subject and art practice. The growing necessity of artists, and expectations of audiences to hear something ‘big’ has become a common behaviour which is breached by the simplicity of Hodgkin’s work.

For an artist time can always be regained, wonders never cease to happen. By an act of imagination one can always go back in time and memory and relive occurrences. However, memory is a selection of marks or images. Hodgkin proposes to make the image an object, “You need things to look at,” he says simply. “Things to affect your feelings, and your intelligence, and your heart.”

Hodgkin's paintings and prints often refer to memories and private experiences, but deliberately avoid being too specifically represented. Which is perhaps why they accommodate external interpretations so generously. Though his works often appear spontaneous, they are the result of the extensive process of building layers in paintings and prints. He paints extremely slowly, sometimes taking years to finish a work which is why a work might be dated 1976-79. The spectator is invited to decipher the finished image as a kind of enigma.

“I find it very difficult to describe how I paint. With age, I try to do as much as possible in my head. Sometimes I put something in: another day I spend my time taking something out —especially when interviewers tend to ask the same questions, the most usual being: How do you know when a painting is finished? Once, in answer to this same question, I said that it’s when the subject comes back and what caused the painting to be made comes back as an object."

The exhibition will continue till July 31.