ISLAMABAD: The works of six print makers, portraying traditional and contemporary techniques went on display at Khaas gallery. The show focuses solely on the art of printmaking.

The exhibition titled Etched and Inked featured established print makers from the United Kingdom, Denmark and Pakistan. The participants had their own distinct styles.

According to the organisers, the show was an allegory of the collaborative nature of printmaking bringing forward both the traditional and contemporary techniques and processes.

Printmaking was multi-faceted and what made it further unique was staying within the realm of art, one could produce an abundance of editions, they said, adding that it gave the artist opportunity to produce and share more than one set of the same images.

Aqeel Solangi, one of the print makers, said: “Place, replace, location, relocation are the main conceptual concerns in my work. Both etchings for this exhibition are executed on zinc and copper plates. Swing is a sort of invitation to sit, swing and celebrate life. Where as the other etching, titled Roots of the Soul has sort of soul-searching approach.”

Aqeel was introduced to printmaking in 2001 while studying fine arts at the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore.

Atif Khan said: “By and large, my work is homage to local popular visual culture, paying tribute to its amalgamation of Central Asian/Persian aesthetics and a local South Asian blend of expressive storytelling. Borrowing from and building on a gamut of images and iconography across hundreds of years of Mughal culture and miniature paintings, to local truck art and a diverse range of visual materials from my everyday life.”

Fatima Saeed told her guests that her art practice revolved around the ideas of displacement, sense of belonging, memory and nostalgia.

“Having lived half of my life in Pakistan, a country where freedom of expression is limited, it has acted as a catalyst in influencing me to create art, which voices the unheard.

“Moving abroad and resettling back in Pakistan, these themes revolving around resettling and readjusting are addressed through visual symbolism in my work,” she said.

Nature inspired Iram Wani immensely. “I am fascinated by the rotation of bloom and wither. Being an adamant believer in the restorative effects of nature, the fauna and flora are integral elements of my conceptual and pictorial narrative, resonant in the Peace Within.

“The intaglio print Dreamscape, espousing, an ardent focus on traditional printmaking is a rendering of the possibility and impossibility. It is a land of infiniteness, and an expanded possibility,” she said.

Kate Bassett’s work examined the fun and reckless working-class lifestyle and environment of urban council estates, mostly situated on streets and within domestic interiors.

“These spaces are often filled with gatherings of people, dogs, and abandoned vehicles, all of which are motifs in my work. I portray the careless, spontaneous, and casual behaviour and attitudes of the people within spaces. The fact that I come from this kind of background helps to inform the personal and honest nature of the work. I feel this is permitted through my personal understanding of the environment and its people. I develop ideas for my work by studying drawings and photographs of streets and communal gatherings. The work is often melancholy yet humorous,” the artist said, whose drawing style gave a theatrical and dramatic sense of space.

The two images by Laila Rahman explored the pomegranate fruit, as a metaphor for the East, as well as a feminine form. The etchings attempt to portray both the fruit’s beauty and its decaying state.

“Once the stuff of fables and myth, the East is warring and breaking down. Its mystique is over. In relating form to femininity, the pomegranate is seen both as beautiful and also as almost a diagram, divorced from emotion,” she said.

Sameera Khan said her work, developed from a series in collagraph medium which was exploring textural beauty of collages to build images depicting the culture of women in society. “They are depicted covered in their chadars but with floral patterns depicting the rich heritage of the country. Conversation II and IV depict the silent whispers and dialogue of hope, prosperity and development,” the artist explained.

Through printmaking techniques, Sarah Hopkins challenged herself to explore new ways to represent her observations. “I like to push the boundaries of process, and play with colour. I create intricate, hand-cut paper stencils, and screen print layers of vibrant colour to build my images,” she said.

The show will run till Jan 12.

Published in Dawn, january 4th, 2023