KARACHI: The difference between a fine artist and other creative souls is that the former manages to say so many things within the scope of a single frame that, comparatively, the latter — a film-maker, a novelist etc — do by magnifying the range of his or her medium. To boot, the frame despite its fixed form contains vitalities that depict both movement and inertia, depending on which the artist intends to highlight.

This is the kind of goal that Maryam Rahman has accomplished in her latest exhibition titled Moving to Stand Still that is under way at the Koel Art Gallery.

The medium that the artist has employed is that of calligraphy. But this is not it. The images that she conjures are not just aimed at readability of what she has put on view through reed pen or marker on art card or acrylic sheet; she wants the lines to convey their messages through kinetic movement, and in certain cases, inertness.

By kinetic one means the energy that they exude has the quality of a narrator that uses movement of shapes to communicate. The ‘Someone who will listen’ series and ‘Recreational grieving’ are a testimony to the claim where what the eye sees gets understood by the mind without much effort.

For clarity’s sake, it would be interesting to note Maryam’s own assertion about her art. She identifies the qualities of the traditional art form as “the silent, rhythmic, feminine, abstract, illegible flourishes — much like the runs in Hindustani classical music. I find strength in claiming the less-established paradigm, the little-known narrative, the ‘anti-hero’”.

One feels that the emphasis here is on the ‘little known narrative’ more than anything else. Because when grief and the act of listening are underlined, the personification of lines looks pretty pronounced.

The show concludes on Wednesday (today).

Published in Dawn, March 22nd, 2023