"Once made equal to man, woman becomes his superior"
Socrates; the great Greek philosopher found the instinctive flame and flare and felt it with its multifarious aspects regarding women in the age when probably, no feminist movement was transmitting the women's rights or the gender issue. The Greeks were perfectionist in all walks of life, from battlefields to chiseling of statues, weaponry to the ornate expression through architecture. Logic and philosophy were other features of their identity; Plato, Socrates and Aristotle were unique and convinced within their views, where the above mentioned quotation, voiced by the great philosopher, could be regarded as the true judgment of all times which, later was taken by the man with prejudice and predisposition.
The story of struggle by women is too long and multi-shaded in different social, historical, religious and psychological circumstances, which have been discussed, analyzed and conceived differently by unlike ethnicities.
In modern world, the tradition of celebrating different days in connection with challenging issues have evolved at a great pace which, in normal state of affairs, are either difficult or impossible to handle with.
March the 8th is a day dedicated to the woman and it is commemorated all around the globe by both the halves.
Pakistan is a country with different ideologies; here we could find women in shuttlecocks (the traditional Burqa) along with high cature of see through and revealing vogue.
We may find woman with erected head running in a "marathon" whilst the same head on the shoulders of a female minister, is aimed with a fanatic bullet on the grounds best known to ...no one.
Leaving it all aside, as we are immune to all rotten sides of the society, there was an exhibition by female artists of SAARC countries at Hamail Art Galleries, Gulberg Lahore, under the title of "The many facets of Eve" in connection with international women's day on 8th lovely evening of March. Painters, sculptresses and ceramists from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and the host country; Pakistan were well-poised for the show.
It was an event of its own kind therefore; the idea captured the visitors and critics with a new and a bit unique frame of mind.
Seven artists from neighboring Bangladesh, nine from India and three from the birthplace of Buddha; Nepal burnished the occasion with their artistic manifestation while Pakistan, as being the host, provided its female artists with maximum opportunity, who were more than fifty in number. Although most of the artists were from Lahore with an exception of one or two from Karachi and Peshawar, otherwise no representation from other provinces could be observed.
Taking the show in terms of art and aesthetic; may divulge a panorama of vibrant colors, blazing canvasses and classic, romantic and abstract expressions depicting the state of mind, the South Asian female artists are in under the social patterns that have evolved, although tousled due to many reasons, in a region dominated by masculinity for centuries.
Bangladeshi painter Shulekha Chaudhary with her painting of a female figure draped in red Sari, composed from backside and creating different portions of drapery, exposed skin of waist and a vertical line of buttons at back of the blouse, was very communicative in terms of expression. She shaped the whole canvas with sharp cuts of blades (rendered with paint) on the female body, in a contrast between the upper and the lower part of the frame, the artist's comment was loud and oppressed with no dynamism in the figure.
Contrary to Shulekha, the Indian painter Babita Das was full of movement and energy as far as the canvas is concerned. Although Babita's expression was abstract, but the basic red and orange pigments against the small dark areas composed in a square frame, were smoldering under the gallery lights.
Another Indian artist Geeta Das with all soothing blues, sacred zinc white and energetic red and orange, painted a female face in oil on canvas but the technique was inspired of the Mughal tradition of miniature painting with stylistically rendered eyes. Nabanita Javed, another Indian with wavy digital movement throughout the canvas imprisoned the eye with lot of movement around statically arranged figures. The color palette of Nabanita consisted of the all-popular shades of blue red and orange.
There were only three artists from Nepal and all of them were looking inspired by the element of design overwhelming all the canvases of Shobha Adhikary and Shushma Rajbhandari, even though the curvilinear form of twisted hair by Ashmina Ranjit stimulated many gazes and took them to a circular journey within the frame.
Pakistani female artists celebrated the day with a full participation in terms of technique, style, medium and subject. The gesture of putting the work of Anna Molka Ahmed, the founder of modern Pakistani Art, motivated many sensitive hearts. The bust of Quaid-e-Azam and a painting with an ironically critical subject pinched many to review the collective attitude as human beings. Just adjacent to the memories of Anna Molka, there were frames with diverse subjects, making the gallery walls talking. The hazy landscape in soft green, dripping blue and baby pink, was showering soft and romantic vision; the young artist succeeded to come with, in a society that didn't encourage such subtle point of view, a true feminine style of expression. Hajra Mansur's female faces were as opulent as they were ever before with dreamy eyes and curls of locks.
The exotic canvases by Maliha Azmi Agha, were scorching in primary blues, reds and yellows, in a closed central composition depicting the intrinsic passion of a vigorous female with free brush movements.
A frame, again in blue tinge with a realistically fashioned woman, having an apple in her hand referring to the everlasting biblical myth related to Eve, by Najia Azmat was interesting in the manner it was executed, a circular calligraphic central area was reminding the centuries old tradition of portraying saints in the western culture, but the calligraphic touch made it an indigenous commodity.
Rahat Naveed Masood, known for her delicate portraits displayed a reclining women composed with a burgundy rose and red Dopatta, covering almost the entire face of the sole figure skilled in soft application of pastels.
Sumera Jawad, an artist very well aware of the social delima regarding woman, put on the show, her work with all famous face of Mukhtaran Mai placed with subdued image of contemporary Pakistani women while the use of red tint by the painter was suggestive and truly womanly.
Chiefly, it were the painters who dominated the whole exhibition but ceramists like Saira Asad, used religious text to enrich the blue ceramic panels, and Kaif Ghaznavi by means of a well conceived arrangement, were amongst those who "like to walk on the un-trodden ways".
Same was the case with sculptresses in terms of number, with the exception of the legendary Anna Molka Ahmed, there were Munazza Rashid, Isma Hussain and Amna Ilyas who graced the show with three-dimensional expression delivered in hard materials. Isma and Amna preferred the enduring subject of reveled contour of female body. Munazza with her social comment "Thali Ka Bayngan" through a realistic and gigantic fiberglass cast tried to mirror the inadequacy caused due to duality existing in selfish approach towards life.
Together with new generation of female Pakistani painters, the veterans were not behind, Zubeda Javed, Dr Mussarat Hassan, Zara David and Salima Hashmi with all the elegance, fervor, and grace enhanced the impact of the show with their fresh work, which could definitely go without saying...!
On the whole, the "Eve" show has triggered the gender based activity in arts, which was not in trend before, what could be the aftermaths?
This question would need time to be answered.
