KARACHI: One of the things that fascinate artists is the mystery of the subconscious mind. The fine line between intent and action, between movement and inertia, between sound and silence as an unexplained phenomenon urges artists to explore, with a fair degree of vigour, what is beyond the domain of experience.

A two-person show titled Intuition Reflection Expression opened at the Art Chowk Gallery on Tuesday. The participating painters — Arsalan Naqvi and Tahir Ali — especially the former, work towards exploring this. Their modus operandi is a little different, though. As can be guessed from the name of the show, their primary concern is the processes that defy conscious reasoning. For example, the sixth sense or intuition. And the order that the two artists think should be followed is that intuition leads to reflection (or introspection), which paves the way for expression in an attempt to make sense of the whole course.

Naqvi’s work, in that context, is no easy viewing. It poses challenges. He makes his ‘intentions’ clear through the ‘Unconscious’ series (acrylic on canvas). He doesn’t stop there; he, in a few more pieces, adds ‘memories’ to the ‘unconsciousness’ bit. It is obvious that the artist is trying to unravel the mystery associated with the mind — our selective preferential approach to people and circumstances. The first exhibit of the unconscious memories paintings is reminiscent of a famous Urdu verse in which the poet tells us that the world is a roomful of mirrors and we can see faces buried in walls if we have the kind of insight required for it.

Ali, on the other hand, keeps the titles of his subjects in the domain of tangibility — ‘In the River’, ‘War’, ‘Self’ etc (mixed media on board). But he too is basically striving to find out the causes for actions taken due to ambiguous and vague motivations. These motivations, much like the motivation of the Shakespearean character Iago, are destructive beyond redemption. Something we need to guard against.

The exhibition concludes on Sept 5.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2017