ART FACTS: Semblance of an era

Imagination has no boundaries. Everybody's imagination is totally different as every person is different from other person in this whole world. Therefore, nobody can guess what an individual imagined about a particular person, thing or a place. Komal Shahid Khan also using her imagination created a semblance of an era in an exhibition titled "Imagining Immortals" at Artscene Gallery, Karachi.
As the title revealed the artist imagined immortals, for her the immortals were seemed to be the Mughal princes and princesses whom he painted in figures as well as in outlined silhouettes.
She tried to paint moving images of animals like horses and elephants that were used in war by the Mughals other than Mughal king and queens.
Explaining her work she said, "My new series of miniature paintings extend from traditional to conceptual and eventually experimental. I characterize my work as the 'lyric', being elusive, suggestive and subtle, as comprehensible in due time, and as moving but not immediate in its impact. The inspiration comes from my obsession, observing a drop of paint dispersing in water, rings of smoke, highs and lows of tides and the rhapsodic or cascading intensity of engagement with vision. I believe this sensitivity is what I keep defining through my work and its meaning is in the process of constant extension."
In a quest to create something new she ends up in creating unappealing artworks. In her imagination she was creating a fusion of traditional miniature and contemporary art but in reality she hasn't achieved what was in her mind.
In most of her artworks she focused on a single figure whether a prince or a princess. But in a few paintings she touched the theme of hunting, war and romance. Such paintings have a group of men and women otherwise she portrayed royal individuals in her works. These individuals were seemed tackling different situations in various paintings. Some of the paintings have black background while others have soft colour tones. She embellished her paintings by flowers, geometrical designs along with dispersed colours of many tones trying to give her works an abstract look just like a dream.
Another attempt to achieve a dream like appearance was to draw ghostly figures devoid of face features with blank black outline of faces these figures gave rather horror look. Also disfiguration of limbs of the figures gave a flawed impression.
The historical era's culture and traditions were depicted in dreamy scenes. She painted the figures in different posters such as sitting, dancing, waiting, fighting and singing thus creating a story of bygone era. The paintings were reflections of the narratives of her dream world. She used her imagination in producing the artworks. The real story blended with imaginative one resulted in an uncomprehending episodes of history.
Each figure was a character of the story that unfolds from painting to painting as she tried to extract new meaning from her imaginary time period. She mainly used bright vibrant colours to give a distinct aspect to her work.
To create an illusionary scene she filled her paintings with dispersed colours but the sharp lines of these colours unable to create the effect. The colours were not blended with the background to achieve such effect therefore she didn't succeed in her desire.
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