Art Facts: Out of the box

Artists experiment various ideas to create variety of innovative contemporary artworks in a group exhibition titled "Amalgamate" at Sanat Gallery, Karachi. Each of the artists tried to produce something new and acceptable to the viewers meaning they want to form different works that also make sense and communicate with the viewers thus convey the message that actually became the inspiration for the artwork to come into being.
The works of artists Affan Baghpati, Ammar Faiz, Mahbub Jokhio, Onaiz Taji, Safia Sher, Samreen Sultan and Shahana Afaq were included in the show. Using many different mediums in equally different ways the artists left the conventional forms of making art and developed their own individual style. Thus the end results were really interesting and appealing at the same time. Every artist has chosen his/her subject of interest and medium therefore able to create artworks that are close to their thinking and understanding of the theme.
The artists merge diverse mediums and created some fresh and odd creations. Their visual language became distinct from each other thus giving an artist more scope and margin to work on the subject freely and comfortably without thinking about boundaries. Thus thinking out of the box and have different approach towards certain social issues.
Affan Baghpati is a graduate of Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture Karachi borrowed the idea from taxidermy to create new forms from old pieces of metal, utensils and daily used items. The discarded objects became new subjects for him and he transformed them by adding new features to them and giving them a new look and meaning. His works can easily be explained by their titles such as "Pandan with Antlers", "Phooldan with Horn" and "Kettle with Horns".
Ammar Faiz presented a mono channel video titled "Distant Memories", which provided glimpses of hardships faced by ordinary people. He tried to understand the lives of this socially marginalised group of society which lead a totally different life from that of our leaders. In a way he tried to highlight the huge disparity in our society. Currently he is working on a documentary in collaboration with street children in Lahore.
Mahbub Jokhio's witty style was enjoyed by the viewers. He used painting and photography both to convey his message of social awareness. His artwork titled 'How to transfigure a print into painting' speaks for itself. His works need no explanation in fact they are themselves explanation of certain issues we encounter in our lives but most of us don't notice or ignore. Although dealing with serious subjects his works also had a humour touch that made his works more interesting to the viewers. Another of his works titled "How to exit from a photograph" showed the other side of the story.
Onaiz Taji with a major in miniature painting explored his expertise through contemporary cityscapes and landscapes having minute details worked out he managed to bring out the individual character of every object and subject he portrayed in his works. However his works showed a cluster of houses in a colony or village each house was defined properly from the people working on the fields to the individual fields. The complex life of people in a community seen as a group of people belonging to certain style of living and culture was depicted very beautifully and skilfully by him.
Safia Sher's experimental 'acid paintings' were a new experience for the viewers. Using Iron sheet, paints and acids as a medium she explored from, volume and structure while it decay slowly and gradually. The titles of her works "Engulfing Us, One by One" and "I am the witness" say it all.
Shahana Afaq used screen print and pencil on paper to explore the complex relationship between friends and people without friends tackling their loneliness. Thus she explored human relationships.
Samreen Sultan's merged digital images and paints to create visually different works. He used parts of the human body especially hands to convey her message. Using hands as the symbol of unseen hands behind every wrong doings in our society she made her point.
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