ART FACTS: Personal narratives

The delicate, cultured and polite appearance of Meher Afroz's artworks rightly reflected the theme of her solo exhibition titled "Aap Beeti" at Chawkandi Art Gallery, Karachi. The images were closely related to her life - simple but illuminating.
She shared glimpses of her life's journey with the viewers. Following her style she used Urdu prose and poetry in her paintings to highlight the message she wanted to convey. Both her art pieces may it be paintings or drawings portrayed her personal narratives effectively.
The drawings in graphite on archive paper revealed an emotion written in Urdu so the viewers can easily comprehend the nature of the art piece like "Khamooshi", Baniyazi", "Sakoot", "Safar", and "Musafat". The black lines and squares, white dots and triangles these shapes were indicative of something in her life. But the black and white were in balance and support each other thus forming equilibrium in composition as the black and white diffused into forming grey.
While the untitled paintings in acrylic with silver/gold leaf on wasli manifest prose and poetry related to life's experiences good and bad because life is an amalgam of both prosperity and hardship.
The artworks depicted contrasting and conflicting emotions; joy, loneliness, freedom, destitution and a sense of responsibility. She fined a solution to a problem than shared her conclusions which he has derived from her experiences in life with others through her paintings. Her work was reflective of religious values. Her works asked questions and then give answers also within the same artwork people have to find it and extract meaning according to their own perceptions and belief.
She began her formal art practice in the early '70s and drawn much appreciation and critical acclaim for her printmaking and painting. Her artworks explored different cultures and human values to understand and find the meaning of life. Using space and lines she influenced and gives form of the most asked questions of life. Her work was always in layers with each layer having a different meaning to her.
She grew up in a place rich with history therefore she used iconography to convey her feelings and thoughts. She talked about her exposure to certain historic events such as independence of Pakistan and to other people over a period of time, which led her in increasing knowledge and skills.
Hence there is no substitute for real time experiences and she shared such experiences hidden in her paintings to be explored by the viewers. She gave hints in the form of symbols. She used universal symbols so that they can be understood by all other than cultural objects that are symbolic of a regional identity.
The colours and strokes were chosen carefully as she think of these as symbols also. According to her each colour and stroke holds a meaning and purpose. The compositions enhance the theme along with line and colour. She also used words as symbols. In some paintings the words or phrases repeated again and again throughout the canvas, hence she wanted to these words when repeated to become a chant hinting at the depth of meaning.
The social and religious factors of life go side by side for her. In a way her paintings were an autobiography which touched every aspect of her life. The blue and ochre colours were used because of their historic relevance. Old building showed signs of beautiful architecture in these colours.
As Afroz completed her undergraduate studies in fine arts from the Government College of Arts and Crafts, Lucknow, India in 1971 it reflected in her works also.
She translated her life in these lines, colours, words and phrases. A couplet by Jaun Elia: "Hum aandhion he bunn mein kisi karavan ke thay Jaaney kahan se aaey hain jaaney kahan ke thay", seemed to inspired her other than Hafiz and Saadi.
The society and heritage has a unique importance in her artworks. Her paintings, drawings and print-making showed modernity rooted in a traditionalist approach. Human development intellectually and morally was the centre of her works.
(The writer can be reached at [email protected])