KARACHI: Urdu poets have used the distance and difference between sky, sea and earth — aasman, samandar, zameen — not as geographical physical realities but as extremes that define, and in certain cases, shed light on the complex facets of human existence. It would be simplistic to say that Sajjad Nawaz is an artist inspired by nature. Probably it would be more apt to suggest that he likes to examine man’s association with nature in terms of its psychological impact on him. This can be seen in an exhibition of his artworks titled Land-Escape that began at the Canvas Art Gallery on Tuesday.

Nawaz uses charcoal and graphite on paper to recreate scenes that have in recent times caught his fancy. It lends greyness to his work which acts more as a symbol of the multiplicity of meaning that exists between firmament and soil, and makes it difficult to have a definitive opinion on things. ‘Cloud-Escape’ lends credence to this observation in a pretty convincing manner. While there is an ominous look to the way the clouds cluster together, the viewer can sense a hint of a silver lining. The silver lining can be sensed if the subject is taken as a character that gets fleshed out in the story that is unfolding in the artist’s mind.

In the triptych ‘Ephemeral Forms’ Nawaz makes it a bit more vivid by imparting movement to the clouds. Their ephemeral (read: short-lived) life is precisely what makes them less ominous and more of a peregrinating creature out there to leave you with an indelible memory.

Through another triptych ‘The Window’ he brings back the show to the issue of the point of view — the viewer’s point of view, that is. This implies that nature affects us in ways where how we view it becomes more important than how we should imbibe it as part of our everyday lives. Therefore, it should be treated like an art form which can console us or make our irreconcilable feelings more poignant, depending on which side of this divide the viewer is positioned.

The exhibition will conclude on July 27.

Published in Dawn, July 19th, 2017