ISLAMABAD, Oct 22: Salima Hashmi did not present any theory of art at PNCA’s “Dialogue on Art” programme on Wednesday evening. Nor did she wax eloquent as the word, she said, was a weighty commodity in her house. She had to take the brush in her hand to save herself from the tyranny of the pen. The audience was treated to a sampling of her paintings that she described in some detail in their relationship to the way life has unfolded in Pakistan. A satirist’s heaven she called it.

She began with a series of photographs that depicted the temporal motion of native imagery in cultural space, from floral design on ancient village pottery to marble carvings in the Taj Mahal, from embroidered motifs on woven tapestry to minarets and calligraphic impressions. Then followed slide projections of her paintings.

Describing her work as an effort to document time she commented on women’s issues, particularly the Hudood laws and repudiated the claim that their repeal would endanger Islam. The end of injustice could not be a threat to a religion which came to establish justice. Why was art free and society in bondage in Pakistan and elsewhere? She said because the establishment thought that art was irrelevant. It was a dangerous supposition though.

Salima Hashmi who did not come for the Dialogue as the daughter of Faiz Ahmad Faiz charmed the gathering with her unassuming poise. PNCA gifted her the cane chair that had been bought for the great man when he was the Council’s director.