ISLAMABAD: In a first for Islamabad, Satrang Gallery presented its first performance art show, featuring the work of four cutting edge contemporary women artists. The exhibition encapsulated the experience of human interaction, captured from both the societal and the woman’s perspective.

Asma Rashid Khan said, “Satrang Gallery takes the lead in celebrating art in all its forms. We are proud to have Pakistan’s first exhibition of performance and video based art in ‘A String Quartet’. Using their bodies as the media, the artists portray the dichotomy of existence with taciturn performances, both live, and on screen. They implore you to listen and to feel,”

According to Zahra Khan, “This candid artwork examines what it means to be a contemporary woman with wants, needs and opinions in a society that is becoming increasingly intimidating. These artists are taking back a woman’s right to touch, her right to beckon and express herself.”

The quartet, Shanza Elahi, Natasha Jozi, Nida Ramzan and Umme Farwa Hassan Rizvi, attempted to redefine how a woman decides to communicate and what she selects to reveal about herself to prying gazes. The performances are based on the idea that one can both communicate and touch via the gaze.

Nida Ramzan’s work traces a woman’s attempts to redefine how she is perceived, by creating a personal, independent standard of beauty and fashion, viewable through protective layers and screens.

“I am trying to combine socio-political issues with complex human emotions. Certain symbols in the videos are used to reflect ideas of violence, endurance and communication,” she said.

Shanza Elahi’s artworks highlight the widely practiced self-censorship. For example, her work titled Instinct, two anonymous, cloaked and figures try to touch one another. She said, “Women have traditionally been judged by their appearance, how they act in public and what they say. They are constantly trying to ‘fix’ themselves in order to meet the standards set for them. I am simply portraying reality in my work.”

According to Farwa Hassan Rizvi, her aim is to cause her viewers discomfort. Her work features protagonists who are relentless and forceful in their demands from the viewer.

Regarding her work she said, “I am testing my own limits, stubbornly refusing to conform and doing something that would provoke the viewer. I work with performance and video, playing the protagonist in the videos to create a confrontation with the viewer. This, conveys my ideas and disrupts the audience’s comfort in an otherwise passive act of watching a screen.”

Natasha Jozi explores the deep impact of a gentle caress through her participatory performance pieces. By touching the audience members, she incorporates them into her work, transferring energy to different pressure points in their bodies. “We experience and understand ourselves in our interaction with others. I am interested in the self and in its experiences,” she said.

Professor Nazish Attaullah travelled from Lahore to inaugurate the opening of the exhibition. She said, “I am delighted that Satrang Gallery actually took a step in this direction, where art has come off the walls and is in the forms of performance and video. I believe that this is the first performance art exhibition in Pakistan.”

She added, “We are increasingly encountering artists who are working in both the mediums of video and live performance. In these very difficult times, art is a means through which we can reflect on what is going on in a creative way. Pakistan is very fortunate to have such talented artists.”

Asma thanked both the ambassadors of Sweden and Bosnia who took the time out to visit the gallery and appreciate Pakistani art. She went on to praise the contribution and support of Mr. Aziz Boolani in promoting young artists from across Pakistan.

A guest, Faisal Mushtaq said, “I think for the first time, as a teacher and an educator, I saw performance art. I have heard about performing arts but not performance art – a live art form that does not have a story line. It was very exciting particularly the girl peeling the watermelon for the young couple. It is both exciting and entertaining.”

Published in Dawn, January 24th, 2015

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