The artists tried to connect to the society through their paintings by exploring various emotions, moods and relationships in a group exhibition titled "Maidaan" at Koel Gallery, Karachi. Each of the young nine artists through their multidisciplinary practices discussed their individual concerns about society and reflected the moral sensibilities and temperament of the city.
Interesting in complex elements of society and its details Ameerah Shoaib Motiwala was fascinated by the concept of a union how people get together for certain occasion and share same feelings of happiness or sadness. She portrayed her ideas through colourful paintings of rooms filled with furniture specially chairs and tables where people sit and talk while meeting each other. These empty chairs and tables symbolically used for people's social interactions which can be private or public in nature.
Maha Minhaj talked about how erasing memories is unachievable task. Memories can't just disappear it is out of question. They are part of our lives and deleting memories means we are like robots working on command in a loop without emotions. The memories brought back longings, regrets, desires and suffering that were market in our mind in the form of memories. Her artworks represent the grime, the agent used to clean the grime and the residue that's left as the effect of it; commenting on the tasking act of cleansing oneself towards self healing.
Mohammed Idris Runija relived his childhood through his artworks. Like his childhood days he dismantle the kettles and funnels and redesigned them into something new just as he did with his toys he dismantle them in curiosity to know their working and then tried to reconstruct them which results in something else. The "Three Legged Kettle" reminds the dancing kettle of Alice in the Wonderland.
Noor Butt revealed how self projection which now has become common in our society affects our character and our personality as a whole. Projecting her own face in different styles in plaster bandages showed how self image can confuse and give a person feeling of being lost. In an effort to look more presentable a person actually looses his/her own identity and become what other people want him/her to be. People get confused which self image they present to the outer world
Sakina Ali connect herself to her grandfather through his belonging which were being placed in an old briefcase also belonged to him. Through her paintings which represented his grandfather's belongings, pictures, letters, identity card and other assortments he used to have in his possession. As she was very young when his grandfather passed away she tried to gather memories about him through his belongings. And in a way remember him.
Sanaan Khalid Shamsi paintings depicted architectural structures and spaces to present experiences, feelings and emotions mainly bad experiences that resulted in trauma. Those incidents stuck in our memories and haunt us the whole life. In bold illuminating colours he presented harsh and dark realities.
Sanya Hussain describe the relationship of a house we called home while living in it because people made a house a home but when we left that home to move abroad or in other locality than one can only remember that home in his/her memories. In the misty paintings Sanya tried to remember her home, her parents and grandparents home and some homes of her relatives and friends that no longer in their possession or were demolished to build a new house. All these rooms, veranda, kitchen and garden the memories flow and one seemed to be living again in that home he/she left long ago only in memories that remain with you as the physical form has been lost forever.
Shanza Raza Khan's paintings were reminder of violence in the city. In black and white and colour the images depicted grim situations once citizens find themselves in. She has chosen to take movie stills that show violence from different Hollywood, Bollywood, Lollywood, Cantonese, Korean, Chinese and also documentary films. In a way she wanted to show connection of movies and daily life how reality differs from fiction and thrill. People nowadays are use to see things on small screens of their mobile phones that's why she has painted in small sizes so people can also connect to her work.
Zainab Abdul Hussain captured images of cars, bikes, pushcarts and bicycles covered with cloth to save them from heat and rain in various places of the city such as markets, roadside and homes. Although the covering cloth reveals the structure of the object it was covering but the object was the fully exposed. Overall the cloth protects the object from the external harm just like hijab, chaadar and veil that protect a person from the outer world and not fully disclose its identity.