Irfan Hasan discovers multiple identities of people of Pakistan in a solo exhibition of paintings titled "The Children of Ambiguity" at Canvas Gallery, Karachi. Irfan became curious about the various tribes living in different areas of our country having many different lifestyles, culture, attire, language, beliefs and social behaviour yet they are a Nation under one flag.
But of course there are shared beliefs, values of groups, customs and social practices that are necessary for a healthy society. But again there are beliefs, values of groups, customs and social practices that identify a particular place or group of people or tribes.
A particular set of attitudes that characterises a group of people fascinate the other people and they exchange information about themselves with each other. Every person is proud of the tribe or community he/she belong. And this pride helps them contain their identities generation after generation. While taking photographs of different people of various areas Irfan became obsessed with the idea how people of a different region have identical features. He remembered the portraits drawn by classical European artists whose figures have same features as the people of northern areas of our country. He studied and found some historical facts about the origin of some tribes but couldn't find the authentic information that could answered his questions.
After doing personal research he decided to portray his questions in the form of portraits of different men and women of various areas of our country. When he draws portraits he had in mind the style of European artists and he combined European style with his style and created new faces of old identities.
His portraits captivated the viewers as they have captivated the artist for a long time. He has chosen to draw portraits of faces only these faces were modern faces of centuries old identities.
He has transformed the lives of common people into an art. He preferred to made portraits of young men and women thus portraying the youth of all ethnic identities. Thus he talked about the future of our country which seemed bright through his paintings. Having white background some of the faces seemed to peek through the white paper sheet in a new world. The faces of the portraits were full of expressions especially the eyes. The eyes of each of the portraits were brightly twinkling as if they have achieved a milestone or entered a fresh new atmosphere. This mode of expression is actually an expression of achievement which the artist had after finishing the portraits.
In opaque watercolour on paper every portrait has different hair colour and complexion according to the area he/she belong thus appearance play a major role in identity. Almost all male portraits had moustache and a beard. Some have long hair; others have trimmed hair while one was bald. But there was not much variation in women portraits. A few of the portraits had side pose mostly the artist have painted the front features of the face. The expressions were mainly attained by the movement of eyes.
The titles of the paintings indicated the origin of the portrait, "A Boy from Hunza Valley"|, "Head of a Jadoon", "A Girl from Swat Valley". The cultural and lingual diversity of Pakistan was very skilfully captured in the portraits. From Hunza, Swat and Kashmir valley to Quetta and Chitral Irfan has covered all the ethnic areas of the country. He used subdued colours in soft tones so the look of the portrait became muted and smooth.
The facial features vary from area to area making their own identities among the group of portraits. An alumnus of National College of Arts, Lahore (NCA) Irfan was trained in miniature therefore; he had an eye for detail. All of the portraits were intricately painted thus creating sophisticated artworks.
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