KARACHI: Generally, the idea of having a home is highlighted as a place “where the heart is”. Obviously, there is an implied sense of happiness and ownership in a space that you can call your own.

One is not sure whether Durre Waseem, whose latest body of work titled Visiting Home was exhibited at the Canvas Art Gallery on Tuesday, harbours the same notion. But the one thing that stands out in the show is the affinity between nature and home that the artist skilfully brings into prominence. As a result, the viewer gets to see some exquisite works of art.

The artist has painted nature in all its glory: flowers, fruit, landscape, cattle. But if one was to get a sense of the locale that she intends the viewer to set all those things in, then the artwork called ‘Saidpur Goats’ (oil on canvas) would suffice. There’s a touch of bucolic bliss in her work, and that bliss can be had while equating such landscapes with home.

To keep things on the lighter side, that is, to set aside the unbearable heaviness of being, she uses lighter hues which serve multiple purposes, foremost of which is that the scenes she (re)creates are easy on the eye. This is important to keep the aesthetic grace of her subject matter intact.

Even when the colours go loud, they don’t distort the grace (of home) that Waseem wants the viewer to imbibe; a case in point being ‘Bhati Red Door’. Although it is hard to ignore the bright red door in the narrow lane, the light-and-shadow effect that envelops the rest of the picture never loses its significance. It is the most significant part of the frame.

This light-and-shadow game becomes more prominent (in terms of the name of the artwork) and yet underplayed (in terms of what’s shown in it) in a piece called ‘In the Shade’. The crows can remind the viewer of many things, including some poems by Ted Hughes. And that’s the charm of Waseem’s art; it evokes multiple genres of art while using just one.

The exhibition will conclude on July 13.

Published in Dawn, July 5th, 2017