A spirited show in varied media, ‘Stop, play, pause, repeat’ raises the bar for curatorial impetus, creativity and craftsmanship in current contemporary art production here. A collaborative exhibition between Art Now and Lawrie Shabibi Gallery, Dubai, it features curator Nafisa Rizvi’s smart selection of 11 young and mid-career artists. Visually provocative the nuanced artworks interrogate the current landscape of social upheaval, political chaos, Diaspora sentiment and world opinion, relating to the national and international profile of Pakistan.

Distinct in opinion and technique the artworks do not just enunciate personal perspectives but also an enthusiastic engagement with the artists chosen media. Some have expanded their existing oeuvre while others opted for experimental changes. Adept at painting Madiha Hyder’s full blown hyper realist stance tantalises the eye as much as the portrayed discomfiture of her juvenile subjects. Spiking the naivety and struggle of adolescence with discreet inserts of battlefield toys she clouds innocence with shades of turbulence and unrest.

Deliberately twisting or misconstruing facts, a prevalent social predicament is playfully transmuted as a visual metaphor by Irfan Hasan. Using Photoshop manipulation he has fabricated ‘Handimals, a species that exists between the human and animal kingdoms’ to show how slight hand distortions can create uncanny misrepresentations. His flippant inversions are clever and comic but do gravitate towards the grotesque and the bizarre.

Consistently original in style and thought Mehreen Zuberi delights in layering her content with subtleties. Her Artist book inspired by the decorative honeycomb paper ball ornaments reflects the delicacy and intricacy of her miniature practice but riddled with holes, fissures and tessellations her hexagonal fabrications emit several portentous readings about the fragility and complexity of the circle of life.

Fabric and needle craft as a fine art vehicle has yet to gain currency in the art world here but creations by Saba Khan and Muhammed Ali are assertive enough to stake a presence. Khan’s wall hangings and stuffed objects emblazoned with images of popular culture address the economic crisis. Particularly striking was a lively patchwork and embroidery image of a common power generator. A cheerful but loaded pointer about the ongoing power crisis it also had a behind the scenes story.

She states, “The generators and batteries in my wall pieces were made by professional embroiderers, who would often wait idly for the power supply to resume. The irony of it all is that they could make the desirable images of a generator but could not afford one.” Ali revelled in costume drama where the subverted message needed to be read in the lavish and finely embellished embroidered details.

The ubiquitous painterly exercise peppered with sardonic humour a la Salman Toor is a welcome addition to the art scene here. A narrative painter and a figurative one his Paula Regoish attitude of imparting thrill and menace to his canvases hits the eye instantly. Greater maturity in working skills and technique was evident among the more established repertoires of Ahsan Jamal, Abdullah Syed and Adeeluz Zafar.

Constructing realistic images of domestic urban interiors that cut across time acquires a novel posture when it is articulated through paper cut drawings on plexi glass and Sehr Naveed has utilised this advantage. Using airgun lead pellets to recreate bridal ornaments Sara Khan’s ‘Beautiful targets’, series alludes to the unchecked and escalating issue of wayside mugging, hold up, assault and gun point robberies here. Hitting upon a relevant concern she needs to bring greater depth and punch to her otherwise pretty works.

A new interactive venture like SPPR between Lawrie Shabibi and Art Now, Pakistan’s only online magazine for contemporary art, augers well for the 11 participating artists whose current workmanship suggests that they are poised for takeoff. Hopefully more collaboration will follow.