ART FACTS: Innovative and creative Revelations

The pieces of art portraying various ideas and expressions in terracotta sculptures and ceramics with delicate details in cuts and curves delight the art lovers at IVS Gallery, Karachi of Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture titled "Revelations". It is an attempt to create awareness about the social issues via art.
The displayed pieces in different mediums of both abstract and realistic figures in sculptures portray high creative potential of the artists displaying culture, mastery and a keen desire to observe the surroundings.
Every artist has given a maximum detail to the art pieces. The contemporary art pieces at the exhibition narrate stories about our society at present and also try to preserve the age old tradition of pottery and their unique designs through ceramic and sculptures. The works show the artist's ability to hear the voice of agony and pain that is around them.
They skilfully utilise their perceptions in the creations of various structures. All the artists tried to communicate to the masses through the language of sculptures and also play their part in preservation and promotion of cultural heritage.
The works combine historical and philosophical cultural understandings, resulting in new compositions and forms. With the innovative and creative ideas the artists' very sensitively incorporates their personal perception of contemporary problems into their artworks. The works reveal their deep insight into the affairs of the world around them.
Hameer Somroo has selected some dilapidated and forgotten element of pottery that is clay, which is being neglected by the present generation. His experiments with clay and different techniques of ceramic results in different style pots, bowls and containers, which he also incorporated with calligraphy in his view calligraphy represents popular culture in the sense that it is one of the form of art which is most common in the city.
Fahim Rao also used clay to interpret his feelings about the human being made of clay and will become clay afterwards and will meet the God in the end. Therefore a travelling process from soil to sky is the destination of a human being. And hence he portrays this phenomenon through his sculptures. Abeer Asim develops a spiritual connection through an abstract expressionist visual work which is a result of an experiment with clay and its materiality.
Some of the artists work like Sara Mahmood and Aliya Yusuf is a commentary on social issues, working with the figures twisting and giving the material a form which represent their true feelings. They tried to show intangible into tangible form - the sculptures. Through simple forms they achieve their desired goal. Using familiar traditional objects they convey their view point.
Nabahat Lotia by using primitive firing techniques such as smoke, raku and salt, form pots that resembles the ones in olden days use for offerings made to deity in various cultures. The larger bodies of work by Raania Azam Khan Durrani are mostly wood-fired reflecting the sensuality of skin, memory and earth together. She uses alphabets turning into words to enhance her view point. Zuna Altaf's conical installations executed in the medium of stoneware, clay fired using the technique of slip casting, and multiple casts of cones, which may be used as decorative objects. The artists whose artworks are on display include Abeer Asim, Aliya Yusuf, Hameer Soomro, Fahim Rao, Riffat Alvi, Nabahat Lotia, Raania Azam Khan Durrani, Sara Mahmood and Zuna Altaf. [email protected]