The creation of Pakistan as a separate nation was an event replete with passionate hopes and ideals, as well as trauma and despair. The history of this ‘Partition’ has come down to the present generation through a variety of sources — oral history, photographs and the words of historians, analysts and others. Even fine artists, novelists and poets have contributed to the narrative.

Recently, a group of accomplished Pakistani artists attempted to explore the story of the birth of Pakistan, aiming to confront history with an open mind and heart. Titled ‘Experiencing Partition’, the exhibition was befittingly set up at the Nazriya Pakistan Gallery at the Lahore Museum, which already has an informative collection of visuals, artefacts and documents about this vital chapter in the region’s history.

Curated by artist, researcher and writer Sadia Pasha Kamran, the exhibition included the works of Rahat Naveed Masud, Amina Sarfaraz Cheema, Sania Sarmad, Zarin Gul, Mehwish Abid and the curator herself.

Masud’s works in pastels, ink and gold leaf are lyrical in their visual impact and seem to allude to idealism. The artist’s painterly skills in making portraits are showcased here, as we see Allama Iqbal, Mohammed Ali Jinnah and a group of historical personages in three separate works. There is no indication of the cataclysmic events that followed at the time of Partition and an ‘all is well’ ethos prevails, with fruit trees and gold leaf in the backdrop of the portraits.

An exhibition at the Lahore Museum explores the wounds and enduring legacy of Partition

Cheema’s three dimensional, embroidered works address the poignant issue of the disruption of artisanal practices at the time of Partition. She takes up the case of the Ambala Bookbinding House and attempts to pay homage to its founder, Haji Bashir Ambalvi, as he withstood the challenges of the trauma of dislocation and helped to preserve the art and craft of bookbinding in his new homeland.

Sarmad also expresses the pain inherent in the act of separation and division by using textiles as a medium, but in a different way. She uses embroidered garments — phulkari from Punjab, Pakistan and pheran from India-Occupied Kashmir — as cultural metaphors. By the rather simplistic act of cutting the garments in half, she tries to convert them into symbols that invoke both pain and remembrance. Another installation invoking nostalgia is created from an old flag of Pakistan and the narrative is further reinforced by a video recital.

Gul’s five watercolour paintings on paper titled Marigold Fence are also symbolic in their expression. The barbed wire is a perennial symbol of painful separation, boundaries and even war. Here it is used in conjunction with the bright and beautiful marigold flowers that indicate the cultural and emotional ties that connect humanity across the borders created in the Subcontinent.

Abid’s approach to the subject is fascinating, if one has the patience to go through the texts and the collection of old photographs. Framed portraits are displayed, while photos of old furniture and other possessions are consigned to a box, each wrapped diligently in paper as an indication of their preciousness. A written history of this sensitively assembled memorabilia investigates migration with the notion of “decolonising homes through objects.”

Kamran’s eclectic collection of paintings and installations engage with the Ruman Art Initiative as a collaborative partner in her Book of Memories and other Marks. In the series of small mixed-media paintings, we see actual barbed wire in the foreground. In another work, she creates embroidery with golden thread on painted canvas, and then there is an installation that uses a model of the Minar-i-Pakistan from the collection of the Lahore Museum. The neon lights that spell her message, “Pyari Azadi [Beloved Freedom]”, sum it all up.

It is this need and love for ‘freedom’ that compels human beings to make painful sacrifices. At this exhibition, art serves as a reminder of the sacrifices made and highlights the necessity of judging events from a purely humanistic perspective.

‘Experiencing Partition’ was on display at Lahore Museum’s Nazriya Pakistan Gallery from February 18-23, 2025

The writer is an artist, art critic, educationist and activist with a postgraduate degree in art and public policy

Published in Dawn, EOS, March 23rd, 2025