KARACHI: There’s a remarkable line in William Shakespeare’s play King Lear uttered by Gloucester, “I stumbled when I saw.” Those of us who are familiar with the tragedy would know that the character is referring to that part of the story that when his eyesight was intact, he wasn’t able to visualise life the way he should have. And now that he’s blind, his spiritual vision has enabled him to realise his earlier acts of ‘stumbling’.

An exhibition of Hamid Ali Hanbhi titled Out of Sight which is under way at the Canvas Art Gallery tackles the issue of sight and vision in a similar manner.

The show contains diptychs, one of whose panels has drawings and paintings (graphite and oil) and the other panel describes the artworks on view in Braille. Isn’t that thoughtful on many levels? The reason for it that the gallery has given is, “sightlessness can present alternate modes of perception.” That’s important.

Once a person is visually impaired, and the light from their life is gone or is already nonexistent, they have no choice but to use their other senses to the best of their ability and by going the extra mile. This is where the magic of the universe begins to appear on a plane that a so-called normal individual can’t even think of. So the difference between eyesight and vision comes to the fore; and the vision, call it the mind’s eye, starts working wonders in multiple domains.

Hanbhi depicts this aspect beautifully. The drawings and paintings catch the eye both for their thoughtfulness and aesthetics. When the artist paints in oil ‘Aasman’ (sky) and ‘Samandar’ (ocean), the idea that it can be viewed even without the ability to see because of its sheer vastness comes to life — and at the same time the way he conjures those images using his skills transports the viewer to a world where the firmament and the sea become objects lying somewhere between the tangibility and intangibility of things.

The exhibition concludes on Oct 15.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2020