ISLAMABAD: An art exhibition highlighting conflicting theories, chaos on roads and other public places as well as on a personal level opened at the Nomad Gallery on Saturday.

Titled Chaos-Conflicting Confluence, the show includes works by four artists.

“The artworks revolve around the viewers’ perception when absorbing the imagery, symbolism and aesthetics as well as a tremendous understanding of cultural diversity and art principles,” said Nageen Hyat, the curator and director of the gallery.

“When the whole society is in conflict and chaos, it’s art that provides a space to find solace and peace,” she said.

Sidra Ashraf, a multi-talented visual artist in miniature painting and calligraphy, gave a talk and conducted a workshop on the dying art of Islamic ornamentation, tracing its history and evolution through Fatimid, Ottoman and Abbasid periods. She said that in the 7th century, the figurative artistic traditions of Spain and Greece influenced Islamic art. The resistance to drawing living beings according to Islamic belief, led to the creation of ornaments.

She also explained the four components of ornamentation- calligraphy, vegetal pattern, geometrical pattern and figural representations- of manuscripts and objects. Kemaluddin Behzad was the pioneer of Islamic ornamentation art, she said.

Ms Ashraf works in mix-media including printmaking, pointillism, pastels and digital painting. But miniature technique is very dominant in her work. Some of her art pieces on display such as ‘Bird’ and ‘Flying Simurgh’ series, ‘Majnu in Land’ ‘Dream land’, ‘Sleeping Lady’ done in gouache on wasli, pointer on paper, debunks superstitious about black and white colours as shown in ‘Freedom Inside Out’ showing both negative and positive sides of life.

For Ms Ashraf, animals and birds are symbols of intelligence, strength, victory of life over death and freedom.

Iram Wani has explored the strength and inner emotions of women. She believes that living in a patriarchal society, the time has come for existing viewpoints to be replaced by adopting personal fundamental ideas and values and channelling and extending them into the realm of limitless opportunities of self-growth and self-dependency.

“In one dimension her artwork emphasises the growth of an everyday woman living in a social milieu dominated by the opposite gender and restrained by the manacles of ancient bondage. It focuses on the elevation of a woman as an individual and collectively, from hopelessness to empowerment- socially, legally, politically and economically,” said Ms Hyat.

In another dimension her visual art depicts her struggle in a patriarchal society to find order in the chaos of the past and the remembrances and experiences of today. In chaos that is a pattern within a pattern and a pattern overlapping another, she analyses these patterns, trying to decipher them.

Raza Ali Shah’s work is an amalgamation of art and storytelling on apparels, inspired from the 18th century Fauvism Movement. The core of that movement was entire negligence of the previous conventions, ignoring every cult of design and manifesting additional definition of creativity.

He has painted chaos in life in different ways in a series in mixed media based on his real life experiences and incidents.

“I have been drawn to the evolution of human awareness and in translating that process onto canvas. The paintings not only speak for me but for the people who have played their part under the sun and long been silenced,” Mr Shah said, who teaches at National College of Arts Rawalpindi.

Sakina Akbar’s work reflects her interest in converting the written script into visuals. In her series she depicts elements of her native Sehwan Sharif, Sindh such essence of Sufi philosophy. Ms Akbar is a miniature and visual artist, art educator and writer. The exhibition will continue through Dec 13 from 11am to 7pm except Fridays.

Published in Dawn, December 3rd, 2018