KARACHI: A six-person show titled Super Duper Perspectives opened at the Koel Art Gallery on Tuesday. There’s a hint of satire in the name of the exhibition. It is understandable — if the idea is to touch upon some bitter facts of life while not trying to sound too serious. But is that the case?

The six participating artists — Zoila Solomon, Jovita Alvares, Ayesha Naveed, Razin Rubin, Noshad Ali and Saddam Murad — seem to be acutely conscious of society’s shortcomings. Society, to them, is not just a milieu in which they were born: they associate themselves, as they should, with the whole world. The very first exhibit by Solomon is testimony to that. The piece is called ‘Clinton di San Sisto’ (print and gouache on Montval) in which the artist pays tribute to a Renaissance artist by placing a contemporary international political figure in the middle of the artwork. What is Solomon trying to achieve? Answer: the permanence of art and human nature. Mind you, this has negative connotation as well because politics is seldom seen in a favourable light by artists.

Alvares captures moments and puts them together to form a picture. But that picture too is seen in bits and pieces. This means it’s not easy to have a holistic view of the (creative) journey she often embarks on.

Ali takes figures out of the equation and teases the viewer with patterns. In an untitled ink-on-paper work he takes the show to the realm of symbolism where art and life become mutually reinforcing forces.

Murad keeps things in the personal domain. There are figures, for sure, in his work, but they find it a little difficult to bare their souls to the viewer.

Rubin, on the other hand, tries to do the opposite, that is, she leaves little room for others to peel the layers off her artworks, simply because the artist wants to show life as the way we refuse to see it — a tad distorted. ‘Act Naturally’ (graphite, carbon paper, watercolour on paper) is an example.

Naveed impresses the most with her perspectives on a few subjects. The ‘Solitude’ series (oil on canvas) is a fine study of how poignantly colours and shapes denote human feelings eliciting the same effect as human gestures or textual communication would.

The exhibition, curated by Muhammad Zeeshan, will conclude on Oct 6.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2017