FRESH!
2014
Amin Gulgee Gallery – Karachi
Curated by Amin Gulgee
FRESH! was an exhibition of Pakistani artists age 30 and under that was curated by Amin with Raania Azam Khan Durrani and Saba Iqbal. Wishing to present a survey of an emerging, post-9/11 generation, the three curators reached out to art professionals and educators across Pakistan to help broadcast their open call. Hundreds of submissions poured in. After careful consideration, the curators chose 64 artists from all over the country to be part of the show, which included painting, drawing, sculpture and photography, video and performance. Strongly represented were the voices of young women. In one room blinked a neon sign by Umber Majeed, a recent graduate of Beaconhouse University in Lahore, which spelt out the Urdu words: Vo keh rahi he ke uss ko kuch kehana he—She is saying that she has something to say. In the mezzanine hung a dress made of condoms by Malghalara Kaleem, who grew up in Malakand Division in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. She called the work Is It Really Protective? Many of the works addressed political turmoil, terrorism and war. RIffat Tehseen Amjad, who is from Gujranwala, submitted a painting in which the grieving and terrified faces of women appear at the center of a red-and-white bullseye composed of the frontpages of newspapers. Also included was a digital print by Adnan Mairaj Malik, a graduate of Karachi University. It superimposed an image of the Ziarrat Residency in Quetta, the final home of Pakistan’s founder Muhammad Ali Jinnah, upon a hundred rupee note. The work referenced the 2013 attack by the Balochistan Liberation Army, who torched the historical building. The exhibition was accompanied by a 155-page color catalogue that included essays as well as statements by each of the artists. It was designed free of cost by PeaceNiche, headed by the human rights activist and social worker Sabine Mahmud. On April 24, 2015, Sabine was shot dead on her way home after hosting a debate on the Balochistan conflict at T2F, a community space she founded in Karachi.
