ISLAMABAD: Two promising young artists have brilliantly portrayed the plight of subjugated segments of Pakistani society along with the liminal existence to which animals have been condemned.

Their new body of collaborative artwork focusing on marginalised genders, cultures, faiths and classes opened at Dastaangoi Gallery on Saturday.

Works by Zainab Zulfiqar and Houria Khan were displayed at the gallery.

The show titled Liminal Spaces highlights the abstract space that the disempowered find themselves in when they feel like they do not belong anywhere, the show’s curator, Amad Mian, said.

Zainab is a Lahore-based artist who graduated from the National College of Arts (NCA) in 2021. Her art revolves around ritualistic flashbacks and nostalgia while coping with invasions of safe spaces within families, generational trauma and the documentation of how these systems affect an individual.

She is particularly interested in how isolation, surveillance and the absence of queer narratives have contributed towards changing her experiences of space, time and memory.

“In these particular works, I have tried to talk about the dissociative state of being and the abstract space that attracts the viewer,” she told Dawn.

She has touched upon some taboo subjects in The Shadow of God in the Garden and You Can’t Please All done in ink and gouache on wasli.

The video series includes I Will Never Forgive You I and II, The Waiting Room, Absurd Every Day and Before the Cat Looks.

Zainab is inspired by Bernard Tschumi, a Swiss architect, writer and educator.

“Tschumi’s art influenced me so much that I have used one of his titles in my current work,” she said.

She is also inspired by Indian artist Bhupen Khakar, famous for his unique figurative style and incisive observations of class and provocative themes, with a rare sensitivity and wit.

“While investigating the construction of spaces still maintaining pockets and traces of the abyss and voids as a necessary precaution, these voids act as liminal spaces for those who do not necessarily fit within their own social persona,” she said.

Zainab and Houria’s collaborative piece titled Takhreeb (subversion) stands out among the artworks, depicting a burning tree symbolising the destruction of nature.

Born in 1996, Houria is a visual artist from Rahim Yar Khan. With a major in miniature painting and minors in taxidermy, calligraphy and photography, she graduated with distinction from the NCA in 2021. She was part of the Maktab project completed under the guidance of internationally-acclaimed artist Imran Qureshi. She exhibited her work at Quad Gallery ’19 in Derby, United Kingdom.

Houria’s work reflects the agonies of religious minorities and the down-trodden class, violence against them and how it is often romanticised in our surroundings on an almost daily basis without any real perception of consequences that the marginalised have to go through.

She uses fungi and flower pigment to capture the narration of the unwanted, unliked and the down-trodden in society. Inspired by her mother, who single-handedly brought up and groomed her, Houria says, “I have painted the marginality, resilience and agonies of women and the subjugated class.

“Just like in real life, this fungus grows untethered and I use it with utmost precision and control but it still lingers in the background.

“In these particular works, I have referenced the culling of dogs and the unnecessary brutality it inflicts upon them, while the ones who are in control of it treat it with utmost de-sensitivity or even as a hobby.”

Her paintings with Persian titles Kotah Amadan (Forget About It), Gand Zadan (Sabotage), Aashian Giriftan (Settle), Dum Giriftan (Standing in a Queue), Dil Kundan (Leave and Never Return) II, Gangaash (Conference) and the series of Lab Barchedan (Being Ready to Cry) done from shells and stones on handmade paper, gouache and fungus preserved on wasli are amazing and done with such sensitivity and mastery. Liminal Spaces can be viewed by appointment only at Dastaangoi Gallery until Aug 8.

Published in Dawn, August 1st, 2022