KARACHI: Karachiites who are fond of old buildings constructed in colonial times must be familiar with the places of worship that speak of a refined sense of architecture which entail, among other things, a deep respect for all faiths. Even if one’s not a Karachiite, this show of reverence can be felt whenever someone visits any such building that’s meant to connect you with the divine.

An exhibition of Anusha Ramchand Novlani’s artworks titled Seven Billion Beliefs that is under way at the Canvas Art Gallery underlines this very fact.

Stepping into the gallery will immediately give the viewer a sense of grandeur. The grandeur, however, has nothing to do with the large sizes of the exhibits. Rather, it’s do with the purity of purpose that comes along with the process associated with these pieces of construction.

The artist in her statement writes, “In this body of work I depict the coexisting structures in Karachi as they occur under the vastness of the same blue skies. Here, they come together under one roof, containing in themselves architectural significance and symbolic value. This work underscores the iconography of the structures as they come to signify various belief systems. The scale of these forms acts as a cosmological signifier in its monumentality as it interacts with the space.”

Two key takeaways from the statement are ‘same blue skies’ and ‘come together’. Anusha is suggesting the similarity of the exercise that takes one closer to the divine aspect of life. The architectural work provides the ambience to achieve that goal. And that’s the kind of ambience that the artist has been able to create by virtue of the ‘Unity of Differences’ series (CNC router, deco paint, gold leaf on HDF) and the ‘Remembrance of Remembering’ series.

The exhibition concludes on April 7.

Published in Dawn, April 1st, 2022