Nadeem Zuberi

A group exhibition of young artists titled “Unwritten Thoughts” disclosed the imaginations and expectations of our youth at Artchowk Gallery, Karachi. As the title explained that the unregistered and unrecorded ideas and reflections of our young minds were transformed on the canvas in the form of images for viewers to ponder.

The things that we regularly see or hear sometimes could not get our attention as we see it as a regular practice or its frequent observation make it irrelevant for many and they just ignore it. But this practice does not mean that those things were really irrelevant instead they may need more attention than any other issue in our society.

The artworks of the young artists Shamsuddin Tanwri, Sheema Khan, Hira Zubair, Muhammad Zaman, Qutub Rind and Adnan Ali explored the relationship between an individual and the societal pressures while others speak about the nostalgia of life and cultural changes. Some of the artworks brought to our attention how our memory fades away and our life replaced with new things and all that remains become past.

Most of the paintings were personal recollections. They were about life’s struggles, hardships, its trials and tribulations along with its colours of hope, faith and sacrifice. Everybody’s life is different from each other and their experiences made their ability to see things in different ways. And this makes every single person unique and special.

Therefore, everyone has their own perspective of a similar issue. And each artist described a common problem in a different way and hence new aspects of an issue arise.

They have produced contemporary art that explored the culture, tragedy and reaction of people to certain issues. Some paintings represented dreams in abstract forms although the works were not obvious yet they explained the reality of everyday life that become stored into our brains in an abstract and unexplained form called dreams.

Thus the paintings through symbolism, incisive attention to details showed artists powerful thinking that reflected the issues emanating from their personal discourse and living experiences.

The artworks revealed some pressing issues while some other issues hidden under layers of bright and soft colours waiting to be revealed by the viewers.

The artists question our social values and particular social behaviours regarding our roles in society with a view to depicting harsh realities surrounding us. Hence the paintings created a connection to a common person’s life.

Their urge to express themselves bring these artists to the canvas and through painting they let others know their viewpoint. The paintings also revealed the mindset of our young generation and their perception of the present and future. [email protected]