ISLAMABAD: Satrang Gallery on Tuesday opened its doors to an exhibition of beautiful works by two talented artists, Mina Haroon and Seyhr Qayum.
Titled Adornments, prominent guests included Ambassador of Czech Republic Tomas Smetanka and the director general of Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA), Ayub Jamali.
“This exhibition is very close to my heart, highlighting women’s jewellery,” said Asma Rashid Khan, who is the gallery’s director.
Mina Haroon’s work highlights how jewellery was a woman’s identity and made powerful social statements while Seyhr Qayum’s works brings to light the adornment of the female body, which illustrates social realities and an assertion of identities, said Asma Khan.
The show’s curator, Zahra Khan, said the exhibition highlighted layers of symbolism and meaning within the act of decorating one’s body.
“Through a series of vivid paintings, handcrafted, textured works and sculptures, the artists highlight how deeply embedded the custom of wearing jewellery was in material culture, particularly local South Asian culture. Considered wearable sculptures and intricate art pieces, jewellery wearing in South Asia dates as far back as the Indus Valley civilisation, and numerous ornaments in shells, clay, gold, stone and other materials have been excavated,” she said.
“Often hereditary, jewellery can be sentimental and steeped in legacy. Passed down families, through generations of women, ornaments absorb the weight of memories and experiences of those multiple wearers. Society and circumstances often determine ornamentation, sometimes wearing particular kinds of jewellery is a method of resistance and a means of expressing individuality and personality,” Zahra said.
In her statement, Minaa Haroon said: “My work predominantly responds to feminine accessories as they speak of female desires, lives, boundaries, and challenges in our lives. The works are about the inheritance of women’s possessive objects narrating and creating their portraits through this work. It brings forth the memory of the past as it is inherited from one generation to another over decades, especially in the eastern culture woven into tradition.”
Sehyr Qayum said her practice explored how adorning one’s body could both be a feminist act of resistance — reclamation of space and an assertion of one’s agency.
“Through large-scale metal-work and figurative drawings and oil paintings, my work questions how, when, and where, a woman commands and holds space — as seen through the lens of history, memory, and culture,” she said.
“As part of The Bling Series, I make sculptures based on, or referencing, jewellery. These three-dimensional works are supported by representational adornment-centric paintings — in some instances ornamentalising nature, and in others, adorning the female body. My artwork is inspired by jewellery that I own as well as pieces of jewellery that belong to my family. In addition to this, my work also references ancient articles of adornment that are a part of major museum collections world over,” she said.
The exhibition is on till June 30.
Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2023
