The sunny days continue rolling in with the desire to go on picnics, hiking, cycling or just enjoying the sun. One's mood is definitely influenced by the weather and the surroundings. It seems unreal that Eid-ul- Azha is round the corner and no cattle can be seen or heard around the Capital. However, shopping is picking up tempo with each passing day. Yours truly sometimes wonders the significance of wearing a new attire on Eid with the depth and meaning behind the festival getting lost somewhere in this outward display.
My first visit was to a jewellery exhibition that was set up by Samina Ahmed at her daughter's residence. She has come on a visit to Pakistan from Manila and brought the jewellery from there. The jewellery was beautiful and intricate. There were real stones used that were set in 14 karat gold. There were jewellery pieces comprising shells while others were formed of pearls. She mentioned, " One of the good things about the shells is that these reflect the colour of the clothes which one is wearing." My daughter bought a necklace. However, the entrepreneur from Manila was extremely disappointed with the response. She said, "Begums of Islamabad don't have the taste or originality for such exquisite pieces." Although the scribe thought that Samina was approaching the wrong set of people. The jewellery would have gone down well with the younger lot and the expatriate community of Islamabad.
The second exhibition titled 'Fading Lines' was of artworks by artists from Australia. The innovative work of Tamara, Virginia, Atiya, Rochelle and Dimple was on display. Zorica McCarthy, the Australian High Commissioner graced the occasion. "Fading Lines" exhibits the work of five emerging women artists connected through study at university on the South East coast of Australia. Despite the different cultural backgrounds of each artist, a bond exists through strong friendship and also a deep interest in art and the process of art making.
They are young, post-modern artists, who derive inspiration from their surroundings, each focusing on a unique aspect of the world they live in.
They explore different abstract concepts in a variety of mediums ranging from painting, photography and textiles, to printmaking, installations and digital prints. Virginia Mawer looks at memory, travel and the past, and investigates their relationship in her 'postcard' series; Rochelle Haley looks at line as the graphic foundation of the landscape and a metaphor of journey and movement in her paintings; Atiya Hasan looks at the ambiguous spatial relationships and the way the eye perceives the tension between the foreground and the background while Tamara Gulic explores the linear notion of reality in her photographs and installations.
In association with Nomad Gallery, Islamabad, showing in two major cities in Pakistan, as well as travelling to Australia, "Fading Lines" aims to expose the work of these remarkable artists to a unique and thrilling country and to engage in a cultural exchange.
Tamara Gulic explains her work in these words: " My art making practice encompasses a range of mediums, primarily textiles, photography and video, or often a combination of these three. Over time my work has developed into an investigation and /or creation of alternative spaces with an aim to conceptually and technically address the problems of a linear notion of reality. Through creation of conceptual and symbolic loopholes in space and time an individual is able to take control over the "reality" which often does not recognise his/her rights or the rights of communities preventing them from active participation and decision making processes which undoubtedly are impacting their every day realities. In a sense it is a rebellious act aiming to deconstruct and reconstruct the concept of what is "real" and who has the power to make this particular decision."
Virginia Mawer lived in Italy for a couple of years and was exposed to a myriad of new sights and experiences. Knowing she wasn't settling there permanently, she vigilantly documented all the new sights and recorded the new experiences through photography. It was a way in which she kept Italy close to herself when in real she wasn't real. She mentions, " I wanted to keep the memories. I like simple everyday details le targe (number plates), le bici (bikes), le colonne sole per la strada (lonely columns that line the street)."
Her 'postcard' series is about remembering. Postcards are sent to show someone you remember them, even though you are on the other side of the globe. They are bought and not sent to remind the traveller of that special place they visited (on the other side of the globe).
Atiya Hasan derives her inspiration from a deep interest in ambiguous spatial relationships. She has tried to capture the tension between the foreground and the background found in the tree trunks and the mysterious spaces between them, in the folds of cloth and the shadows they create. She explains, " I am interested in the way that light defines lines and edges and the way our eye perceives the subtle differences in light and dark, depth and tone." She has used oil paints on canvas and tried to capture a sense of near and far in her work so that the viewer's position is never fixed: lines and bands sway in and out of focus, what is figure and what is around constantly alternate.
Line is the graphic foundation of landscape. Rochelle Haley explains, " My work aims to explore line as an informative aspect extracted from landscape as we move through it. I am also interested in the concept of the environments potential vulnerability to our transit. The philosophical connection between: the function of the visual system-how/what we read in landscape; the psychology of perception - why we read /react to certain visual information such as line, contrast, edges and motion; and the combined empirical (science) and sensory (art) methodologies of representing landscape is useful investigating our contact with landscape, its susceptibility to degradation and hence in protecting the environment."
She has spent a lot of time in transit through the NSW landscape. She intuitively extracts lines from the environment while staring blankly out the window. She lets her pen rest on paper and the motion of the vehicle over the typography shift and shoves it around the page. Flickering vertical lines of trees, horizontal continuous lines of the horizon, sky, road lines, fences. The line becomes the metaphor for movement as well as a machine influenced reaction to, and imposition on landscape. She translates the line onto canvas embedded in texture to emulate the fuzzy motion of travel. The scale of her work is significantly large as she wants the viewers visual field to physically immerse the saturation of lines so that they move and see them flicker by. Her abstract obsession with line has a relationship with the visual systems literal perception of landscape. Recognising and reacting to line, contrast, edges and motion. She is interested in how one sees as one moves.
Last but not the least was a house warming party by Monica and her husband, Emrys Schoemaker. Monica is the campaign officer in Oxfam dealing with the issue of Honour Killing and Emrys works in Amal -Action aid. It was a fun party with the young and old taking to the dance floor and having a good time. The bonfire in the lawn was very warm and the smouldering wood spread a glow on every one standing around it.
We have made quite a dent into the New Year but the parties continue. Eid is on the horizon and plans are already underway as how best to spend the four holidays. I extend Eid greetings to all my readers. So long until next week.
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