KARACHI: One of the many definitions of imagination is the ability to create images which cannot be perceived through recognised sensory systems. Artists use their imagination very well as they go where no ordinary man (in the non-artist sense) intends to go. They explore, and not just push, the boundaries of things, of issues that are beyond sensory perceptions. A cogent evidence of this can be had at a three-person exhibition titled Two sides to a coin that commenced at the Full Circle Gallery on Friday evening.

Ashes of the beacon by Babar Moghal.

Why two sides? Answer, and as a famous saying goes, ‘all things have two handles, beware of the wrong one’. However, the exhibits in the show do not propose to point out what’s wrong and what’s right. Rather, they try and investigate the difference and distance between the real and the imaginary. And by no means do they wish to diminish the distance.

Personality by Zahid Farooqui.

In that regard Babar Moghal gives a very nice illustration in ‘Ashes of the beacon’ (oil on canvas). The murky image is a fine work of art. It challenges both the artist and the viewer: the artist is challenged because these unclear flashes of situations seem to define the world around him; and the viewer is challenged because he is expected to interpret something that appears to be an after-the-event scene — innately sad.

Nauman Abid cuts straight to the chase, although he too is in the same business of separating what’s wished-for from what actually exists. The remarkable thing about his work ‘Flashback of a fool’ (C-Print) owes a lot to the simplicity with which a complicated and often discussed idea has been presented: the idea of living in one world and desiring an out-of-bounds one.

Zahid Farooqui enters the realm of fiction and through distorted faces strives to make sense of the journey of existence. ‘Personality’ (oil on canvas) is a cogent example of it.

The exhibition will remain open until Oct 9.

Published in Dawn, September 20th, 2015

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