meethapani

Quiet Voices The American painter Mary Cassatt moved to Paris in 1874 and after a visit to her studio   by the French artist, Edgar Degas, the two instantly recognized they had a shared sensibility. This began a lifelong association. Unlike sculptors Camille Claudel and Rodin, there was no romance or power play – just an equal meeting of the minds.   In 2014, the National Gallery of Art honoured this association with an exhibition “Degas/Cassatt”. More interesting than the similarities are the subtle differences in their works. While stylistically similar to Degas and other Impressionist artists, the subject matter of the work of Mary Cassatt is seen as ground breaking in the context of her time.   Susan Fillin Yeh notes Cassatt does not conform to male images of women. Her women are   shown absorbed in their own independent lives whether in domestic settings or outdoors. They read, sew , bathe their children, have tea with friends, pick fruit in the orcha...

Portrayal of Women “Aurat ke sirf teen roop hotay hain – maan, biwi, aur tawaif”   A woman has only three identities – mother, wife, and prostitute. Having had the privilege of a genderless upbringing, we were amused when we heard   this dialogue in a Pakistani film of the 70s -   until we realized many endorsed this view. Today, while the strong word prostitute is not used, women are often reduced to a simplistic dichotomy of   haya and be hayai (modesty and shamelessness).   Once centred around the female body, modesty or shamelessness now expands to incorporate the female voice – modest silence or shamelessly speaking out.   Human society is commonly divided into men, women and children, of which the role of women has been subjected to the greatest vagaries over time. The visual representations of women over the years and in diverse cultures makes for a complex narrative. A predominance of female figurines found in ancient civilizations, a...

Wanderlust Dépaysement , a French word whose literal meaning is “to be without a country”, describes the sense of disorientation in unfamiliar places. For adventure travelers it describes that combination of nervousness and exhilaration of being in countries whose customs and language are strange and new. Artists are familiar with the feeling, as each artwork is a step into the unknown. The Surrealists and later Conceptual artists, deliberately created dépaysement or disorientation, to present familiar objects in unfamiliar contexts. Since nomadic humans established agricultural societies and city life, a world of predictability and sameness emerged. While comforting for most, there have always been those who are restless, crave challenges and a life of adventure. Some, like travellers   Marco Polo and Ibn-e-Batutta, and the many explorers of history, thirsted for knowledge of distant lands. Others, such as the illegal migrants   making hazardous journeys, and ...

The Fading Footsteps of History Solomon David Road, Ali Budha Street and Shivadas Street lie parallel to each other off Barnes Street in Ranchore Line, Karachi. More than street names, they offer a glimpse into Karachi’s history – a religiously and ethnically diverse community. The inner city of Karachi is filled with intriguing street names – Hindu, Jewish, Goanese, Parsi, Muslim, or British – and streets with trade names such as Tailor Street, Chaba Gali and Weaver Lane.    Today, while postal addresses carry the names of streets, most people are oblivious of who these streets were named after. Pre-partition directories, the ghosts of Raj-era buildings, now hidden by a tangle of wires and shop signs, old photographs of the city and accounts of Partition migrants sleeping on the pavements of Bunder Road are emblems of an erased and disintegrating past. Architect Yasmin Lari placed heritage plaques on some key buildings of Karachi. A list of 426 heritage buildin...

Poet Nations The one art form that is unequivocally loved across Pakistan is poetry. Hamd and nauha, qawwali, mushairas, ghazals set to music, lyrics of pop songs, sufi poetry at the shrines of saints, qawwali , poetry written on rickshas buses and trucks, on the walls of dhabas – there is something for everyone.    I am not referring to poetry that hides in books read by fellow poets, but the public sharing of poetry. While all nations celebrate their poets, few have assimilated poetry into the very fabric of society from politics to leisure. Arabs held the poet in high esteem. From simple phrases or saj to rajaz , qitah and qasidah , the poet inspired warriors, belittled the enemy, recalled past glories, celebrated the romance of desert life.   The poet was the most respectable member, sometimes leader, of the tribe. Poets were believed to have wisdom, judgement and a sense of history. Aswa or commercial markets developed into cultural fairs where an ar...

What have we done to our youth? At this year’s Art and Design degree show at the University of Karachi I was taken aback by the darkness that lies within the sweet looking cheerful young men and women graduating this year. There is always a degree of emotional turmoil that is expressed through art. However, this year’s work shook me to the core and I asked myself, what have we done to our youth?       Despair, depression, suicidal thoughts, a childhood of abuse, night terrors, stray dogs, gender labels were transformed into beautiful artworks, but reflected a deep anxiety. Art is a natural vehicle for personal expression. How many of those hundred million or so young Pakistanis have similar anxieties that are never heard? Have we disempowered our youth? Youth the world over are struggling to be heard. Malala Yusufzai for education, Greta Thunberg and the Friday school strikes for climate, March for Our Lives for gun control.  At the ages of 17 and ...

Awakening Intuition The subconscious mind manages 95 % of the brains capacity. Humans receive 2 million bits of information every second of which we can only process 134 bits. We would be unable to perform routine activities if the subconscious mind did not absorb and filter selected information to our conscious mind.   Even those apparently conscious activities such as driving, walking, swallowing food, even breathing or keeping our heart beating, are managed by the subconscious. Artists are known to tap into the subconscious to allow their creativity to flow through the use of intuition. Most artists speak of suspending organized thought to let their intuition take over, or what one artist called “ an overwhelming sense of knowing” .   This is not simply a flashlight moment like a hunch, but involves judgement and emerges from contemplation, introspection and investigation. William Duggan, author of “Strategic Intuition: The Creative Spark in Human Achievement”,...

“The Inconstant Moon” * The most mesmerizing feature of the night sky is the moon, when it first shows itself as a fine sliver for a few minutes after sunset, when it lies on its side like a slice of lemon, in its breathtaking fullness on the fourteenth day. We are treated to Blue Moons, Blood Moons, Harvest Moons, Super Moons. Sometimes we see the old moon in the new moon’s arms.   It has a mysterious dark side we never get to see. From the dawn of civilization, myths and folklore have grown around the magical qualities of the moon. From the healing properties of absorbing the rays of the full moon, to its ability to transform humans into werewolves, the moon is both loved and feared.   The full moon affects nature from coral reproduction, flowers that only bloom under the full moon, to affecting human emotions. The moon has inspired lovers, poets, science fiction writers, filmmakers and artists. Moon deities wielded great power in ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, ...

Art in a Time of Flux Artists are naturally drawn to uncertainty, even chaos, within which they find underlying patterns or a glimpse into primal realities that are otherwise inaccessible through the precise methodology of science or verbal logic.   The turning points in the history of art have always come at times of great turmoil, or axial shifts.   The first major turning point was the European Renaissance when scientific and philosophical enquiry of the Arab world was transferred to medieval Europe and challenged religious control of knowledge. Artists investigated anatomy, perspective, the nature of light, and scientific achievements . The artist was no longer an artisan working for profit but a respected personality with a knowledge of cultural theory.    Leonardo Da Vinci and Michel Angelo epitomized this role.   Art Academies were formed, professorships and curricula established. Romanticism emerged from the disenchantment with the Industr...