LAHORE, May 30: From a ketchup sachet highlighting elephants’ killing for ivory to translations of English pop song lyrics pointing out society’s ‘double-standards’ on vulgarity and decency, the visual arts students of a local varsity have innovatively expressed what they feel about the world around them in their degree show.
Degree Show 2012 at Mariam Dawood School of Visual Arts and Design, Beaconhouse National University (BNU), will be open for the public on Thursday (today), May 31, and will continue till June 4.
The thesis work being showcased is by two students of BFA jewellery and accessory design, nine students of textile design, 12 of visual arts, 16 students of visual communication and five students of masters in art and design studio.
About the show, School’s Dean Ms Salima Hashmi said it was full of new ideas and the students worked on performing arts and sound that was an addition in the established art forms and in Pakistan BNU had come up with this challenge.
The thesis work of Raiha Tul Jannah, a digital artist, comprises six art pieces including installations, video paintings etc. She played Azaan in her own voice on megaphone as a sound installation. Her piece titled ‘Protect me from what I want’, is a video painting showing her chewing her tongue violently. Explaining the idea she said, “I have reacted to the mindset of the people who have strong sense of possession which is very common in this region.
‘Kapi Paste’ is another interesting work by a visual communication student, Samreen Azam. She has translated lyrics of many English pop songs in Punjabi to show that the society, especially youth, has double standards when it comes to defining ‘decency’ and ‘vulgarity’. The point she wants to make is that where many Punjabi songs are condemned as being ‘cheap’ and ‘vulgar’, many English song lyrics with similar connotations are condoned. She also compared certain dance moves by some western pop artists to those of Punjabi dancers which were perceived differently.
A visual communication artist, Chirantha Aneesha Kuruppuarachichi, displayed his designs for boarding tickets and air-travel goods that were designed to create awareness about extinction threat to elephants. An interesting design is of a ketchup sachet with an ivory tear on it which when pulled cuts the elephant’s neck and red ketchup (resembling blood) starts gushing out. The designer said,” Last year in Africa around 25,000 elephants were killed for ivory which is a cruel number. I wish to discourage use of ivory goods and elephant killing for getting ivory.
‘Maniac’s Creed’ by textile artist Ahsan Saeed Hashmir is a line of casual western wears.
He also created a comic strip to support his idea. He also designed a comic book depicting 2012 AD as ‘the days of brightest future in the history’.
Jurors for textile are Ehtisham Rashi, Kamiar Rokni, Zahra K Mirza; for Visual Communication Design Ms Sheeraz Wania, Sami Mehdi; for Fine Arts Shalalae Jamil, Hamra Abbas and Mir MA Talpur.