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Artwise
Curator Sumaira Tazeen
Miniature show: associated metaphors
Salwat
Ali
Associated Metaphors
The contemporary
miniature more in step with contemporaneity than with its original
miniature ethos has succeeded in adding a lively new dimension to
artmaking here. The rigorous yet exquisite workmanship and the
unusually minute scale reaffirm its allegiance to the parent model
and distinguish it from the dynamics of easel painting. But most
of all it is the peculiarity of the
content that is determining and defining its rambunctious course
ahead. Politically volatile, critically charged with social and
cultural tensions, dwelling on diaspora sentiments, exploring the
metaphysical and positing an inquiring look at religious extremism
miniature art today is as explosive as the current burning issues
it is reflecting. Highjacked by the young generation as a vehicle
of dialogue with 'self' and others it has provided them a forum
they proudly proclaim their own an exclusive new age
reinvention showcasing their point of view.
A fair sampling
of young generation mindset was witnessed at a recent miniature
group show "Associated Metaphors" held at the IVSAA
Gallery. It was established miniature artist and faculty member
IVSSA, Sumaira Tazeens first curatorial venture. She had brought
together five independent miniature artists who were directly or
indirectly creating work related to gender issues. As an
exhibition "Associated Metaphors" was built on the
premise of gender interactions, reflections, concerns and
observations. Artists Aisha Rahim, Hadia Moiz, Mehreen Zuberi,
Naveid Iqbal and Shoaib Mahmood had created artworks relevant to
their personal understanding of this broad based theme.
Aisha Rahims
miniature art centralized on creating visual manifestations of
emotional exchanges between members of the opposite sex. Her
thrust was on semi abstract representations of
'feelings' mutual and exclusive. 'Pleasure' was amongst her most
memorable painting, a mixed media exercise on vasli rendered in a
pleasing burgundy hue. Particularly worth noticing was not just
the ripple effects emanating from the deep red poppy image, but
also the finely painted detail of stamens, stigma and pollen dust
in the inner nucleus of the floral construction. While the concept
of "Beyond the reality" did not reveal itself instantly
it was still an intriguing attractive image that invited debate.
Similarly her symbols, though deftly painted, were ambiguous.
For Hadia Moiz
it was depiction of intimate togetherness that was paramount in
her work. She chose to use organic shapes tubular convolutions and
mushroom capped, intertwined images to portray her feelings. If
working on newsprint was meant to bring added significance to the
painting it failed to do so. Newsprint text relevant to the
concept being interpreted could have given a larger meaning to the
work.
Mahreen Asif
Zuberi distinguishing herself as a miniature artist and an art
educator at the Visual Arts Dept of Karachi University has already
exhibited works pertaining to gender intimacy in a
solo showing some time ago. Her current paintings take off from
her previous work where she was toying with the drill machine form
as a representation of love in the 21st century. Her current
images of 'drill bits' and an industrial age vibrator, the form of
which is very similar to a hand drill, give definition to her
concepts of gender relationships in this show. While the work is
in context to an established expression and connects with the
premise of this show the imagery if seen independently can take a
while to divulge itself. The paintings carrying seating
arrangements can suggest two is company and three is a crowd and
the drill bitts and vibrator in "With Attachments" is
also understandable but most of the other untitled works are open
to speculation. Unlike other artists who capitalized on the
emotive aspect of togetherness Mahreen prefers to cut the chase
and zero's into the nitty gritty of the matter as objectively as
possible. As an artist she is meticulous about her drawing and
painting skills and crafts her idiom with confidence.
The current
social and political chaos in the country is taking its toll on
human relationships. Artist Navied Iqbal alludes to the strain of
maintaining balance and harmony in such an environment. He feels
the bedlam and confusion "stretches you across the limit
sometimes." His visual implications are still vague and can
be enhanced with a dose of directness.
Upbeat and
trendy Shoaib Mahmood has set his pace in the realm of
contemporary miniature
with a specific focus on the bane of brand culture. He extends his
signature style further to incorporate the theme of this show.
Juxtaposing swimwear staples of bikinis and swim suits alongwith
his usual Nike T shirts and denim jeans he establishes a ying yang
chitter chatter. An apt commentary on the influence western brands
can wield on the psyche of susceptible third world nations a
form of neo colonialism he is now alluding to the segment of
misdirected youth who not only patronize brandwear but also adopt
western behavioral trends in their conduct with each other. 
Offering
diversity in thought "Associated Metaphors" comes across
as a revealing document of young generation artists attitude and
thoughts on the vital aspect of gender attraction. Romance as a
sentiment seems out dated - theirs is a direct take on the
physical and the material. Living in a culture under siege they
are internalizing the atmosphere of disarray and distress. The
mechanical and the substantial have replaced the poetic and the
lyrical. Some artists attempted to create a bold and open stance
in their work inferring a subtly put explicitness perhaps to
create shock value or are they mirroring reality if so is
this a developing trend soliciting acceptability?
As a curator
Sumaira Tazeen has been able to muster enough works to articulate
the dictates of her central idea. The thrust would have been
stronger if she had removed some of the weaker and more ambiguous
paintings. |
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Traditional
norms
Amna
Nasir Malik Jamal
DO you
ask your daughter to help with the yard work and your son
to do the dishes and vise versa? Do you give your son
chances to take care of others and praise him for being
gentle and considerate? Do you hug your daughters as much
as you hug your sons? It's not difficult to
understand the core reason for this discrimination against
girls. Male chauvinism stems from their sense of
superiority over women exhibited at the level of personal
relationships. Men habitually refuse to contribute to the
household tasks such as cooking, baby sitting and
house-chores etc are considered as women's work. Men feel
proud in saying that they never bother to step into
kitchen to make a cup of tea.
Most
parents want their sons and daughters to have equal
chances at success as they venture into the world. Today,
equality of the sexes is largely mandated by public policy
and law. However, outmoded ideas about gender are still
deeply rooted in Pakistani culture. Biased attitude
persists no matter what the economic or educational
background.
Pakistani
society is traditionally patriarchal where a female child
is often regarded as a lesser being. Upbringing of a
female child is based on the belief that she is born to
serve and thus they are trained in cooking, and household
chores etc and at the same time, she is conditioned to be
non-assertive, accommodating, and remain somewhat naοve
to worldly affairs and against that a boy is trained to be
physically strong, aggressive, and competitive when out
and about, in studies or later in job situations. .
The
gender-segregation continues in schools and colleges where
girls and boys are often treated differently in the
classroom. When boys call out answers, a teacher usually
listens and offers constructive comments. However, when
girls call out answers, teachers tend to focus on the
behaviour rather than the content of the response.
To
nurture feminine consciousness, girls are often sent to
schools where segregation based on sex is practiced. In
mixed institutes too, the system has defined roles;
separate seating arrangement and eating places and
separate and different games on timings etc. In school
text books it is not common to see pictures where girls
are in kitchen or in market places buying vegetables.
Also, subjects such as languages, drama and literature are
to some extent recognised as for girls and, mathematics
and physics as boys' subjects.
The
emphasis on differences begins at birth and progresses
throughout childhood. For example, few people give pink
pants to a boy or a blue blanket to a girl. The toys
chosen for children are also gender-related - girls are
given dolls and miniature kitchen wares, while boys
receive action figures and construction sets. The problem
arises when certain activities are deemed appropriate for
one sex, but not the other. In many traditional homes,
girls are not allowed to laugh aloud, as "a girl
loses her modesty". Female stereotype discourages
girls from acquiring many skills that will allow them to
become financially independent.
This is
a serious matter - rearing a generation of good citizens,
workers as well as good parents, what is required is to
eliminate stereotype that discriminates and change the
traditional way of segregation allow children to share and
share alike, all that matters in their lives..
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OFF
THE SHELF
Pakistan Army in peace
and war
By
Kaleem Omar
Crossed Swords' is a magisterial account of the history of
the P
akistan Army
Shuja
Nawaz, the author of "Crossed Swords: Pakistan, its
Army, and the Wars Within (Oxford University Press,
Pakistan, 2008), lives in Alexandria, Virginia, and spent
many years working for the IMF as a division chief in
Washington, D.C. and as a director of the Vienna-based
International Atomic Energy Agency. He is the younger
brother of the late General Asif Nawaz, Chief of the Army
Staff (COAS) from August 16, 1991 up to his death in
office after a heart attack on January 8, 1993.
One of
the most intriguing parts of Nawaz's book is an appendix
in which he examines, in considerable detail, the question
of whether his elder brother was murdered. His account of
Asif Nawaz's death is likely to revive the controversy
that surrounded the event at the time.
I
interviewed General Asif Nawaz for The News at the Army
House in Karachi in July 2002. After the interview, we
spent a pleasant hour reminiscing about the days back in
the early 1950s when I was a student at Burn Hall School
in Abbottabad and he was a student at St. Mary's, Burn
Hall's sister school in Rawalpindi. The impression I came
away with from the interview was certainly not that of a
man who had only a few months to live.
At that
meeting, General Nawaz made no bones about the fact that
he had a pretty low opinion of some of the politicians in
the government of the day. "Yarra," he said, in
his typical plainspoken way, "the schools you and I
went to gave us a set of values and taught us fair play.
But these guys (the politicians in question) are just a
bunch of sleaze balls."
Here, I
must declare an interest. I have known Shuja Nawaz for
more than forty years and am privileged to call him a
friend. We haven't seen much of each other in recent years
because he has been living in America, while I have been
living in Pakistan a country we both love. On a trip
to America in 1980, however, I drove down from New York to
Washington, D.C., where I stayed with Shuja for a few
days, and a very pleasant time it was too.
I knew
he would do a good job, being a level-headed person, a
lucid writer and very knowledgeable about the subject.
Even so, I was not quite prepared for the magisterial
account he has now written about the Pakistan Army, which
has ruled the country for more than half its existence.
Its rule
has been characterised by very mixed results, ranging from
the tragic secession of East Pakistan in 1971, to the
sterling performance of its soldiers during relief
operations following the disastrous earthquake that struck
parts of the NWFP and Azad Kashmir on October 8, 2005. The
army has loomed large on the Pakistani political scene
even during those periods when it was not running the
country's affairs.
On the
plus-side of the national balance sheet, the army has also
been involved in building some of the biggest public
sector projects in Pakistan, including the Karakoram
Highway (in partnership with the Chinese), a 500-km road
that makes its way from Havelian in NWFP's Hazara District
to the Chinese border at the 16,000-foot-high Khunjerab
Pass in the Northern Areas, through some of the most
difficult mountainous terrain in the world. The KKH has
been described as one of the engineering wonders of the
world, a view that would doubtless be shared by anybody
who has driven along it.
Nawaz's
exceptionally authoritative and densely researched book
should find a large readership in the South Asian
sub-continent and is likely to spark off a lively debate
not only in this country but in India and Bangladesh as
well.
Among
the sources that the book uses are many hitherto
unpublished materials from the archives of the United
States. So American readers, too, should find it an
insightful analysis of the at times turbulent relationship
between the US and Pakistan a relationship which, over
the years, has veered between periods when Pakistan has
been called the US's "most allied ally" and a
surrogate for American interests in the region, and
periods when Washington has turned its back on Pakistan,
cut off all military and economic aid to this country, and
left it pretty much to its own devices.
Following
the US invasion of Afghanistan in November 2001, General
Pervez Musharraf's government's decision to throw in its
lot with the Bush administration's "war against
terrorism" has come in for much criticism from
Musharraf's political opponents and many independent
Pakistani commentators. Musharraf, for his part, has
repeatedly stated that Pakistan is supporting the
"war against terrorism" not in America's
interest but in Pakistan's own interest.
The
debate on this issue, in the context of what Pakistan has
gained or lost in the process, has been going on for years
and is likely to continue for many years to come.
Commenting
on "Crossed Swords", General Karamat says,
"Shuja Nawaz has used his considerable expertise to
delve deep into the Pakistan Army. The result is an
insightful study of an institution that has been, and
remains, the centre of gravity in Pakistan. This superbly
researched book comes at a critical time in Pakistan's
history. A must read to understand the past and the
ongoing events."
The
well-known Pakistani historian Dr Ayesha Jalal, Mary
Richardson Professor of History at Tufts University in
Boston and the author of several books about Pakistan
including "The State of Martial Rule", says of
Nawaz's book, "An exhaustive account of the most
powerful pillar of the Pakistani state structure, this is
more than just a study of a single institution. It is an
insider's considered view of sixty years of Pakistani
history. Using information culled from an array of
hitherto unused sources, including some rare interviews
and the Pakistan Army's own archives, the author blends
astute analysis and gripping historical narrative with
consummate skill. Containing a welter of insights into the
military mindset, its partnership with the civil
bureaucracy and attitude towards the political fraternity,
this is a book no serious student of Pakistan can afford
to miss."
Stephen
P. Cohen, who is a fellow at the Brookings Institution in
Washington, D.C. and author of "The Pakistan
Army" (University of California Press, 1984), states,
"Shuja Nawaz's study is as definitive as we are
likely to get; no other book has penetrated so deeply into
the army, and so carefully examined this powerful
institution in the context of Pakistan's history and
politics." This view is endorsed by the Pakistani
writer Ahmed Rashid, author of the best selling book
"Taliban, and Jihad: the Rise of Militant Islam in
Central Asia (Yale University Press, 2002). Rashid, whose
latest book on Afghanistan "Descent into Chaos"
is due to hit the bookstands next month, says of Nawaz's
book, "At a time of crisis and peril for Pakistan,
this ground-breaking book offers unprecedented information
about and provides unique insights into the country's most
important and powerful institution. Nawaz opens new ground
on the army that has ruled Pakistan for half its political
life.
The army
wields immense power in troubled Pakistan. Nawaz explains
why and how in the most well researched and lucidly
written book of its kind." The publisher's
dust-jacket notes express it well when they state:
"Based on 30 years of research and analysis, this
definitive book is a profound, multi-layered, and
historical analysis of the nature and role of the Pakistan
Army in the country's polity as well as its turbulent
relationship with the United States. Shuja Nawaz examines
the army and Pakistan in both peace and war. Using many
hitherto unpublished materials from the archives of the
United States, the United Kingdom, and the General
Headquarters of the Pakistan Army, as well as interviews
with key military and political figures in Pakistan and
the United States, he sheds light not only on the Pakistan
Army and its US connections but also on Pakistan as a key
Muslim country in one of the world's toughest
neighbourhoods."
The only
thing I would like to add to these comments is that Oxford
University Press' Pakistan branch, under its able managing
director, Ameena Saiyid, has done an excellent job of
producing the book. People interested in this country's
history owe a debt of gratitude to the book's author and
to OUP.
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d
talents all round. The work on display, by a batch of
graduates from National
College of Arts, Lahore, was miniature at its best. Most
of the work carried a blend of thoughtful experiences,
feelings, and some reflecting on the philosophy of life
and its interpretations. Young men and women, going
through life and trying to understand what life is all
about, and then telling the story in miniature language.
he
title Genesis 2008, reflecting a new approach, depth
of understanding and with titles opening up
interpretational sense of art and its environment. The
ten artists participation includes: Nerissa Fernandez,
Aisha Hussain, Sobia Zahid, Ammara Khalid, Rehana Mangi,
Isbah Afzal, Iram Khan, Rubaba Haider, Sana Obaid and
Sana Mehmud.
an affair of the heart to a philosophy unloved
existence. Her other paintings, equally fascinating, a
door opens to infinity, two houses suspended, then a
series of voids telling a tale of life's
fascinations.
a
Mangi has shown that something like human hair can
also represent 
various
meanings when placed as an art work. At times, Isbah
Afzal's work gives the impression of sticking foreign
material to her wasli surface but in fact it is her fine
work that makes the surface move. Iram Khan has chosen
to depict a sort of 'hide and seek' with her memories.