KARACHI: How does one differentiate between the ordinary and the extraordinary? It is an extremely difficult question to answer. In art, there can be many ways to describe an exceptional (read: unordinary) piece of creative work. One of them is that its combined force of technical refinement and contextual truthfulness touches the heart of the viewer with initial viewing. While the former can be achieved through hard work and rigorous practice, the latter — contextual truthfulness — is about the passion and sincerity with which artists wish to project their ideas.

A group exhibition of IVS alumni fine art class of 2023 titled Ode to the Ordinary — Uncommon Dialogues, which concluded on Wednesday at the Koel Art Gallery, has special exhibits on display; even with the themes that can be called recurring and are important nonetheless, the treatment meted out to them is praiseworthy.

Curated by Nurayah Sheikh Nabi, the show carries the work of 17 talented creative souls. Given the large number of participating individuals, the subjects that they have touched upon have a wide variety.

The key point which needs to be taken into account is what the curator has highlighted in her note: “The collection of works looks to challenge the status quo and dares to question conventions that govern the complex nature of human existence.”

This is a task loaded with both possibilities of creating something startlingly worthwhile and challenging in terms of steering clear of the obvious aspect of expression. The exhibits seem to be made with awareness of the challenge. Consequently, the viewer gets to see a wonderful set of artworks.

The participating artists are: Ahwar Nasir, Alizeh Afzal, Ayesha Jamal, Ayla Farook, Hamda Imran, Iman Ahmed, Javeria Aziz, Kainat Waseem, Maham Qureshi, Maira Husain, Manoj Kumar Khatri, Sadia Zia, Sami Siddiqui, Samina Hassan Laghari, Syeda Yumna Fatima, Tahura Kamran and Zoha Masood.

Published in Dawn, March 21st, 2024