[1]Two solo shows by two foreign artists, one American and the other Asian, running at Vadehra Art Gallery, demonstrate the differences in sensibilities on one hand, and conceptual similitude on the other.
‘Aalmi’ by Pakistani artist Faiza Butt explores the universal, physically and conceptually, through particular imagery without narrowing her visual world to the subcontinent. The depiction of the deeply-personal through the mundane and the mythic is exemplified in the duratrans print series, ‘My Love Plays in Heavenly ways’. In each print work, a young boy can be seen playing, hiding, floating above a Chinese dragon, with household items shown at the borders. The blue ink used in these prints is the colour of Chinese porcelain. Her other works invoke the social and political spheres as in the gender loaded pendants shaped like Allah held in lipstick red lips, or the poem by Faiz Ahmed Faiz, written when he was incarcerated, juxtaposed with meaning-laden images inscribed on a light box.
Braina Blasko, on the other hand, endeavours to understand the essence of pure movement of classical and folk dance and its relationship with textile tradition through photography that is partially documentative in nature and partly lyrical in its interpretation.
Blasko captures the intense energy in the process of making indigo colours/cakes, the workers draped in indigo dyed clothes covering their bodies and heads waist high in trough battling against foaming blue waters. Man and material seem in conflict and yet are one, united by the colour blue. Red silk thread that would go on to make a sari also creates a powerful image of pure colour against the neutral background. She has also emphasised the visual and tactile interplay between the dancer, his or her body and the cloth that drapes it, be it the vigorous movements of Chhau and Kalaripet or the gentle flow of Sattariya and Mohiniyattam.
Links:
[1] http://archive.asianage.com/briana1jpg-887