KARACHI: At the heart of existentialist philosophy is the notion that existence precedes essence. It is not a dictum, though. It is more of an intellectual inquiry as to from which point in their lives should human beings begin to analyse their fate. This brings into focus the issue of memory and reflection, which seems to be the thread connecting artworks on display at the Art Chowk Gallery in an exhibition titled Origins.

As per information provided by the gallery, it was during a discussion between some creative individuals (whose works are on view) that the idea of coming up with an exhibition of artists engaged only in pure printmaking techniques was floated. That, too, is important, for what is any work of art without technique. Sometimes, as the cliché goes, the medium is the message. But here, to this writer’s mind, it is the way each artist has tried to look back on ‘origin’ that makes the show interesting.

Zaira Ahmed sets the tone of the show with the Traces series (etching, aquatint, chine colle on Somerset paper). The blurry images of old abodes and a flower blooming in the corner in the first exhibit have nostalgic undertones, the longing to return to a place where life, nay existence, wasn’t complicated.

Damon Kowarsky always impresses the viewers with the way he fills his work with unstinted passion for landscapes that have an historic appeal. ‘Charburji’ and ‘Neela Gombud’ are fine examples.

And how can artists remain apolitical, especially in this day and age? Samina Iqbal resorts to overstatement with ‘Home sweet home’ (digital print) and that drives her point home pretty convincingly. The picket on a busy street covered with enough protection for whoever is manning it is as contemporary, and hurtful, a scene as it gets.

Sadaf Farooq comes back to the main theme with the Deconstruction of the maze series (photo-etching, aquatint, photo transfer) and juxtaposes two worlds: the hazy, somewhat distorted one and the one that the artist has stored in her memory.

Ali Raza, on the other hand, deconstructs the textual part of the visual aspect of things in his three exhibits. The gist of which is: what you see is what you (can) read.

Naazish Attaullah, Atif Khan, Nurayah Sheikh Nabi, Anwar Saeed, Laila Rahman and Afshar Malik explore ‘origins’ in their distinct, insightful ways and are quite impressive.

The show will run till Nov 5.

Published in Dawn, October 30th, 2014