NEW DELHI, Mar 27: Nine women artists, five from India and the remaining from Pakistan are collaborating to display a visual panorama of artworks depicting the shared culture of the two countries.
The six-day exhibition, “Colours of Hope” scheduled to begin here on March 28 has been organised by Empowerment, an NGO, which advocates the use of art and culture as a tool for social change.
Artists from Pakistan include Ayesha Durrani, Fizza Saleem, Amna Ilyas, Romessa Khan and Mariam Khan. Participants from India are Gogi Saroj Pal, Seema Kohli, Nupur Kundu, and Sonika Agarwal.
Apart from exhibiting three works each, the artists would also collaborate to produce a 10-metre long canvas.
“This exhibition sets the stage for a unique interaction between highly charged minds from various backgrounds, styles and schools of thought. It hopes to bring to the fore the common heritage and culture of both nations and inspire the youth to be more empathetic and understanding,” said Kumar Vikas Saxena who heads the NGO.
The event is aimed at helping people understand that the people across the border share the same ideas, feelings and anxieties as themselves, he said.
Pakistani artist Ayesha Durrani who explores issues of female bondage through recurring images of roses and mannequins. She uses the faceless dressmaker’s mannequin or ‘dummy’ as a form to explore the confines of the female body and its place in patriarchal society.
“I am not a feminist in a rebel sort of way but yes I want more rights, I am not content with just equality. As a woman I want to be both a nurturer and nurtured. I want freedom, choice and being looked after, and I don’t need a man for that,” says the artist about her works.
Amna Ilyas who operates from her studio in Lahore and works primarily with glass and acrylic to create sculptures, paintings and installations.
She has this to say of her conceptual works. “My Work is based on the fact that only what can be seen there is there… What you see is what you see.”
Artist Fizza Saleem says her love for scuba diving has enhanced her curiosity to discover. Her works in the upcoming show toys with the idea of replacing a static space with a more organic one.
Romessa Khan, has previously exhibited in the US, India, UK, Canada and other major national and international forums. Her earlier works were based on print making techniques though lately she has explored painting, 3D surfaces, miniature, photography and drawings.
Sonika Aggarwal, who has been holding solo shows in the country and abroad is exhibiting paintings that reflect the myriad moods and roles of a woman, from a nurturer to the shy bride in waiting to the brazen fashion goddess.
Seema Kohli, who trained under the eminent artist Rameshwar Baroota and whose repertoire includes paintings, murals, installations and sculptures is showcasing works inspired by “life itself”.
For Nupur Kundu, “colours are the window to the soul”
“Revealing the unknown behind colours, concealed beneath the layers of the unexcavated layers of colours, I endeavour to embody in my work the ineffable in colours.”
Gogoi Saroj Pal, whose artistic oeuvre spans nearly five decades, brings with her a slice of her artworks, “which have a fantastical element that comments on unequal relationships.”
She is exhibiting fibreglass and acrylic colour sculptures.
Pakistani artist Mariam Hanif who has recently completed MA (hons) in Visual Arts and has expertise in print making and miniature painting brings with her artworks that are inspired from nature.
She says she wants her audience to feel the sublime and celestial beauty in nature and to go back with a new visual vocabulary of landscape and experience of ecstasy.
The exhibition “Colours of Hope” is being supported by ONGC and is set to be displayed at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations till April 2. (PTI)
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