KARACHI: The noun ‘veil’ has physical connotations: to hide or protect the face, signifying a sense of decency. But the metaphoric layers of the word are far richer. Sometimes the thing that’s hidden appeals more to a thinking viewer than what’s revealed. The act (of hiding or revealing) is done both intentionally and unwittingly; after all, humans are hard-to-decipher creatures.

This idea is at the heart of an exhibition of Masuma Halai Khwaja’s artworks named The Veils of Our Soul,which concluded on Sept 8 at the Canvas Art Gallery. The noteworthy thing about the show is that the artist has not confined the subject to the known eastern traditions and value system.

She has broadened the horizon: “Fabrics and garments have the potentiality to be structured in myriad different ways and possess the ability to narrate events in culturally relevant contexts. This body of work analyses regional, cultural and political scenarios by investigating the provenance of garments, embroideries and fabrics, and weaving into them narratives that, though rooted in the context of South Asia, hold universal relevance. Not unlike our skins that bear witness to the vicissitudes of our lives, if read carefully, garments too hold many stories.”

Stories, that’s exactly what every artist tries to tell. But Masuma talks about ‘holding stories’. Perhaps she suggests that for her the medium is not always the message; it’s the message that leads the medium in a certain direction. Whatever may be the artist’s goal, the result is interesting.

For example, the series ‘The sea will be the sea whatever be the drop’s philosophy’ (oil on canvas) hints at the bigness of that which conceals countless things no matter what constitutes that bigness — the drop and bucket metaphor. How does one relate that to the topic of the show? Well, the soul is something infinitely mysterious that cannot be seen, so what keeps it under wraps must also be respected.

Then there is a reference to Shakespeare’s Hamlet in a piece called ‘Perchance to dream’ taken from the famous soliloquy To be or not to be where the protagonist is trying to decide between two equally toilsome options: to live or not to live. In such a situation, dreams can understand the language of the soul better.

Published in Dawn, September 11th, 2022