KARACHI: A three-person show titled Folding Shadows opened at the Koel Art Gallery on Wednesday. The participating artists are Sarah Ahmed, Babar Gull and Hadia Moiz.

The shadows mentioned in the name of the exhibition remind one of the Greek philosopher Plato’s opinion on poetry being ‘shadow of shadows’. He was basically talking about art as a form imitation, to which Aristotle famously responded in his thesis Poetics that art imitates the ideal reality which could be found in everything. This also seems to be the crux of the three-person display.

Gull’s ‘Thirsty Crow’ (Sumi ink on wasli) is a potent example of the observation. The crow has been represented in art and literature with a variety of meanings. The fable of the thirsty crow (also referred to in the exhibition by virtue of another artwork) in our part of the world is known to everyone. But with the eminent English poet Ted Hughes, the crow assumed an unusual significance — the words struggle and survival come to mind. Gull’s storytelling, rather impressively, moves along those lines.

Hadia has used geometric shapes to create a world whose labyrinthine nature is familiar to the viewer. But the artistry with which Hadia has conjured that world takes the viewer into a totally different zone where life’s enigmas and mysteries come across as a game that no one can afford not to play. ‘Pawn’ (Perspex), in that regard, is a striking piece.

Sarah Ahmad is also taken with geometric forms but with a difference that the shape of the human brain is the place from where, she feels, ideas emerge, and therefore should be drawn to see how science and art come together without giving the impression of producing a contrasting image. The series ‘Fractured Cosmos’ (archival ink on vellum) is a testimony to it.

Fading Shadows concludes on May 3.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2018