ISLAMABAD, Sept 22: Greek Ambassador Evangelos Carokis admired the paintings, especially of an Afghan refugee woman, done on sack cloth by artist Martina Anagnostou. "It is an awe inspiring picture which brings out the expression and depth of feeling of refugees in the camp," he said.
The Greek ambassador inaugurated the paintings done by Greek artist Martina Anagnostou at the Alliance Francaise here on Tuesday. The subject of her art was sufferings of Afghan women in refugee camps in Balochistan. The name Displaced given to the exhibition, therefore, seemed quite appropriate.
Ambassador Carokis liked the picture Icon-3 the best among the paintings, and was in rapture about the large expressive eyes of an Afghan woman and said it left tremendous impact on the beholder.
In her brief introduction before the launching of the exhibition painter Martina Anagnostou said her pictures showed the anxiety and agony she felt while looking at these uncared women though it was essentially a view point as seen through the camera lens but the emotion human was not missing from these studies which depicted both the sincerity and beauty of the world as well as he hypocrisy in global politics.
Martina was at the exhibition with her 14 months old son Frankie. "My son is my most perfect creation," she said to this reporter. She visited the refugees camp in February this year with her husband who works with a Greek NGO.
The environment of the camps was beautiful and striking, Martina said but the people were tense, and children seen roaming the area wore no shoes. "They are not very happy people and this perspective I have presented on the canvas."
She was struck with the gender politics in the refugee camps and elsewhere, but she respected the cultural differences but was accustomed to questioning gender differences anywhere.
In her exhibition she has depicted gender differences in two mixed media works called Gender/Enemy-I and Gender/Enemy-II. The pictures show masculine figures interface with those of women and these two gender groups were unable to establish communication.
An interesting picture is called Blind Mother is Watching You. The title was an inversion of the famous intrusive 'Big Brother is Watching You' stance, mentioned in George Orwell's famous novel 1984, only with this difference that the prayers of an Afghan woman, although she had been blinded and had suffered indignities in violence prone circumstances always kept guided her offsprings to become good citizens of this world. The picture shows sad people but also promise in the innate goodness that rests in human breast.
In addition to poster paintings which is how her work of art should be described, Martina is a creative photographer. A large number of her chromatic photographs displayed at the French cultural centre were studies of refugee camp life but the subject could have been more descriptive had these been shot in colours but Martina said she likes to print her own photographs.
Martina comes from Athens and can speak four languages - Greek, English, French and Swiss. In her introduction she spoke in all four plus a few words of Urdu which shows she has also learnt this language well enough to pronounce them clearly.
She was trained in art at London, where her work has also been displayed. Her current exhibition at the Alliance Francaise is the first to be arranged in Pakistan - a fact which much delighted AF director Xavier Lagorce.