Karachi's women artists explore conscience through their art

Paintings seemed to be the best way to explain the perceptions, self-awareness by the four women artists in a group exhibition at Artscene Gallery in Karachi who also use their art to share their profound and philosophical understanding of life through their creations expressing their emotions, through figures and forms.

Depicting abstract, figurative art and landscapes the artworks touched the basic theme of consciousness both social consciousness and self- consciousness.

They took their inspirations from direct observations of the society and therefore invited a mood of pure contemplation in a viewer. Sharing happy and sad moments they expressed their emotions and thoughts through various colours and forms. Almost all the paintings were in bright hues exuding refreshing energy while every artwork was inventive with some depicting symbolic expressions.

Hafsa Shaikh made viewers look out of a window blurred by rain drops giving her paintings a new style. In a way she pointed how reality becomes amorphous when seen through the other’s perspectives.

One can see the streets buildings and people which were the same but by looking through a fuzzy window they become out of focus and shadowy. This is the same case when facts are not clear, people become confused and make up their own conclusions that differ from reality.

On the other hand, Imrana’s paintings were the reflection of her own life as she painted different figures men and women that reflected her own character or the ones she came across in life.

She portrayed those that left her behind with her longing for their presence in her life, representing them in a way that reunited her with those absent characters in the form of art as she does not want those people to become shadows in her memory.

Moreover, Maham Siddiqui’s artworks talked about the hidden meanings of words as she painted bundles of old newspapers both English and Urdu to show that words written are considered as document apart being right or wrong.

When put together they are just a bundle of newspaper but they contain thousands of stories from around the world as well as local news that now becomes the past thus the newspapers have secret and invisible intentions which must be understood.

Zarmena Aslam is another talented artist whose paintings explored the journey of woman’s life based on the conditions and factors of the society. According to her work the life of a woman is divided into various stages as she passes through different emotions and feelings during her lifetime and wants to express her thoughts and ideas too.

Zarmena is a feminist and through her figurative work she portrayed women in harmony with nature. Surrounded by plants and butterflies the women’s gestures were calm and peaceful, while the red colour that dominated her artworks symbolised happiness and mental, spiritual pleasure.