Exhibition: Inspiration from excerpts
An exciting new development in the Karachi art scene is the Mandarjazail Collective. Described by its members as a self-initiated group of visual artists belonging to various creative fields, it provides a well-rounded look into the creative youth of the city. Their first-ever show at the Koel Gallery, Karachi, plays with the idea that the initiation of any “new” idea can be traced back to an old idea, and traces of the latter always resonate within the former’s ingenuity.
What is most exciting about this show is the hordes of people that came out on its opening day, a welcome sight for the Pakistani art scene that is starved for an audience. People from every walk of life engaged with the works, probably due to the diversity of the participating artists. The amalgamation of various creative arts goes beyond crowd-pulling, however, as it stretches art practice beyond disciplinary boundaries, adding depth and nuance to the works, and giving you insights into human perception and creativity, and in turn producing a richer experience.
The most intriguing quality of each work is the recognisability of visual sensibilities specific to each discipline, yet it’s independence from them. One such piece is Mariam Mulla and Ayesha Haroon’s “Window” that provides a look into the complexity of emotions offered by a city, each working in their own discipline of graphic design and textile design to represent glitches or imperfections as inherent parts of a city.
Twenty-two artists use pre-existing texts as the starting point to interpret and understand complex ideas through their own individuality
For this particular show, each duo has picked up a piece of text as a starting point and built their idea around it. It’s interesting how each of them has approached this differently. While some have taken translated texts literally or taken direct inspiration, others have worked with it more conceptually. Still others have only treated it as a starting point and their ideas have evolved into something completely different.
The resulting works speak of vastly diverse ideas, whether it is tragedy and its impact on life questioned by Fahad Naveed and Sarah Mir; religion debated by Veera Rustomji and Shahzaib Arif Shaikh; or existential debates initiated by Zehra Nawab and Taha Ali’s works. Daniyal Tariq and Samreen Sultan venture into storytelling through words and graphic visuals and appeal to our intrinsic human nature to traverse the unknown. Meanwhile Numair Abbasi and Anna Saeed seek to draw connections between people separated through physical space by allowing them to observe and (at first unknowingly) be observed with a borderline controversial use of hidden cameras.