KARACHI: In his remarkable thesis The Art of the Novel, Franco-Czech novelist Milan Kundera claims that a novel does not examine reality; it examines human existence. This is an interesting point, because it, in a manner of speaking, suggests that reality is hard to peruse. What is reality then? How much is it shaped by the impressions that we form of people and things after observing or experiencing certain situations?
A group exhibition titled States of Perception curated by Emaan Mahmud currently underway at the Chawkandi Art Gallery raises a similar question.
What exactly is that query, by the way? It is, as per the note provided by the gallery: “Can reality ever be objective when we each experience the world through memory, emotion, desire and personal history? In a time increasingly shaped by digital overexposure, political instability, emotional exhaustion and endless streams of images, what happens to perception itself?”
These are interesting queries that the participating artists — Abid Aslam, Faizan Riedinger, Hina Tabassum, Noman Siddiqui, Sheema Khan, Shamsuddin, Unver Shafi and Zaid Baloch — try to respond to.
The eight creative men and women, in doing so, explore subjects such as history, violence, rhythmic movement, childhood innocence and curiosity, artistic traditions, human relationships, fantasy and the magic of shapes and forms. These are the subjects that — even if one is not familiar with what’s going on in the world of art — appear before us regularly by virtue of information dissemination or personal experience. Therefore, the artists look closely at what it can mean to have a particular perception in relation to the realities of everyday life. Resultantly, the viewer gets to see some striking works of art.
In that connection, the following artworks on display need to be mentioned: ‘Impulse’, the ‘Head’ series, the ‘Ways of seeing’ series, the ‘Guns N’ Roses’ series, the ‘Continuum’ series, the ‘Scene’ series, a couple of untitled works done in mixed medium and ‘Sweet wonder’.
Thought provoking stuff!
The exhibition concludes on Sept 18.
Published in Dawn, September 13th, 2026
