EXHIBITION: RETURNING TO CULTURAL ROOTS
Pakistan possesses a rich repository of heritage art, but works of traditional art, design and pattern (other than miniature painting) are commonly viewed as artisanal crafts only. Unlike fine arts, there are no research-based education programmes with innovation opportunities and gallery exhibition prospects reserved for traditional arts.
The recent VM Art Gallery show, Living Traditions, challenges these deficits with a diverse, thought-provoking collection of 130 traditional art-inspired works. The exhibition also marks the launch of the VM Centre for Traditional Arts and its new diploma programme in partnership with the Prince’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts (PSTA), London.
The PSTA is recognised for its academic and research excellence, high standards of practical skill and craftsmanship, and for its open and holistic philosophy. Its ideology centres on integrating the theoretical study of the traditional arts with their practical application in order to institute them as contemporary living arts that evolve and endure. Living Traditions showcases work with Pakistani heritage from the diploma programme’s expert team of tutors as well as work by 20 PSTA alumni, whose continual artistic practice reflects their unique education at the PSTA.
Contrary to postmodern art’s short-lived genres, traditional art offers an enduring permanence
In Pakistan, the miniature art revival and its ongoing contemporary evolution indicates just how successfully tradition can be reinvigorated. The Living Traditions show in Karachi is a first step in this direction and the wide range of art on view manifests the potential inherent in this endevour. Exhibits in VM Art Gallery A, primarily by fresh entrants, pertains to traditional ceramic kashi kari tile art, illumination, calligraphy and khatati motifs, studies of Islamic geometric patterns, marquetry experiments, basic wood and wire sculpted interweaves of circles, triangles, hexagons and polygons. These works illustrate the students’ understanding and mastery of elementary learner exercises. Evidence of creative impulse was minimal but their skill sets are well-developed. Among the few miniature-inspired artworks, floral replications by Alefiya Abbas Ali are praiseworthy.