An exhibition of the work of Julia Blackmore that took place at the Robert Mann Gallery, London in December 2012, presented a collection of photographs taken over a period of two years in which Blackmore featured ordinary people going about their daily lives. It was a series inspired by the 20th century French painter Balthus.

One was reminded of this exhibition when a display collectively titled, ‘Picture Perfect’ was held at the ArtChowk Gallery, Karachi, by five up and coming young artists from Lahore. The artworks shown were based on a series of each artist’s personal photographs transformed and reinstated in unanticipated ways. As the American artist George Baselitz states, “The reality is the picture, it is certainly not in the picture.”

The exhibiting artists; Saadia Hussain, Saamia Vine, Mizna Zulfiqar, Irfan Gul and Mohsin Shafi are graduates of the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore, and the idea for the current exhibition emerged when for various reasons, their families were forefront in their thoughts.

Hussain titled her anthology of nine black and white photographs, ‘Love/Hate 2013’. These were made vibrant with the use of the mixed media and digital print on canson paper. The artist refers to a period of boarding school in her life and draws upon the children’s stories linked to those times.

Groups of important looking people are given irreverent red dotted cheeks belying their serious expressions; relatives take on the guise of Robin Hood, and are tempted by Snow White’s shining apple. One subject is seated before the yellow brick road that leads to the land of Oz. Hussain added the installation of a cushion to her work, the colours symbolising the camouflage of personality traits of the portrayed characters.

Gul’s ‘Arid dreams’ series consists of heavily textured images of digital prints worked with drawing pen. Examining the artworks there was much to discover in the facial expressions of people found and symbolic touches were added with birds and traces of animals. It is an intriguing collection with much hidden beneath layers of crosshatch linear design.

Vine’s engaging oil on board portrait was enclosed in an extremely ornate frame that spoke of earlier times. The frames used in the exhibition were a surprising addition to the artworks and a spontaneous element by each of the artists on the same wavelength. Her contribution included small collage works as well as nostalgic studies of female groups and an extensively worked art piece titled, ‘Swinging her way’.

A comprehensive collection was the work of Shafi. He states, “Hoping to make the viewer see reality through the fiction of my eyes.” The images based on personal snapshots worked with mixed media and collage portrayed humans with animal heads, groups arranged against diverse scenery and included a bridal pair; but none of the subjects depicted had facial features. There was a lot to think about here with several of the subjects toting tall bags on their shoulders in place of heads. In a change of mood one discovered an original interpretation of ‘The emperor’s new clothes’.

Zulfiqar’s work was invested with her dexterity in the art of miniature painting. Using gouache on wasli, photo transfer and watercolour on walsi, the work in show included several beguiling portraits and ‘Wallflower’ the face of a young girl emerging from a covering of flowers, yet the centre grouping was ominously dark.

A circular miniature bordered artwork carried the echo of a portrait. ‘Sometimes absence is more reminiscent than presence.’ Two small paintings resembling cards were titled: ‘A day in the park’. Delightful pieces but who is that dark, shadowed figure in the background?