KARACHI: In a world of binaries, light symbolises life — as opposed to darkness which has negative connotations. It means it’s also a sign of cheerfulness and progress. Painters and cinematographers use light for two reasons: one, they create the right ambience for the subject being painted or screened; two, they sometimes employ it as a metaphor for something important which characters can’t fully do justice to. A two-person show titled Breathing Light that can be seen at the Koel Art Gallery has both the above-mentioned features.
The participating artists — Khadija S Akhtar and Rabia S Akhtar — are sisters. This, in a way, implies that there may be an overlap of ideas. Not at all. Both are distinctly different, content and technique-wise, and brilliant at what they do. Here’s a bit of its evidence from the statements that the gallery has provided which will help us understand the artists better. “Like water, the ebb and flow or memory remains in a state of continuous transformation. As recollections of the past are altered by contemporary circumstances, they grow increasingly fragile and precious. With this knowledge artist Khadija S Akhtar attempts to chase and re-imagine the ephemeral joy of what once was.”
For Rabia: “As history indicates, human mythologies, language and aesthetics are shaped by our connections and interactions with the animal kingdom. Over the centuries, animal presence in visual culture demonstrates the dynamic relations between man and beast, which exist in perpetual modes of flux, simultaneously forming and disintegrating with the passage of time.”
These are two entirely different topics: memory, which is intangible, and the man-animal relation which is tangible. The former is a singular exercise and the latter indicates a collective behaviour. And yet, they somewhere carry a degree of lamentation. For instance, memory can hurt, so can our inhuman attitude to a natural habitat. But there can be moments of mirth as well. The impressive thing is that Khadija and Rabia make their paintings with the kind of abandon that can only be driven by a consuming passion for art. This can be gauged from Khadija’s ‘Red Box’ (acrylic on canvas) and Rabia’s ‘Passing Tempest’ (gouache on wasli). And the passion illuminates — or lights up — their artworks.
The exhibition concludes on Dec 22.
Published in Dawn, December 18th, 2021
