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| Sunday, 4 July 2004 |
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Features |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
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Shehla Rahman : Portraying terror, torture and tears by Abdul Qadir Portraying the rights of women on the canvas with brush and colour is something which has attracted the attention of people and Shehla Rahman, a Pakistani artist has given this aspect of art a new dimension.
She was the only female artist from Pakistan who was invited to Switzerland to exhibit her art works on rights of women which won acclamation from world over. A profile painter, the field of her interest in human faces, particularly of women. Canvassing of an Afghani refugee woman, gives reflection of Shehla's art and skill and the indepth mission of her life-to fight for the rights of women. It speaks of her sensitivity and compassion, the pain and sufferings, captured by her depicting the reality of woman's circumstances and conditions. She paints for a cause and being a woman she is naturally moved by the subjects and issues that affect the women in our society. Shehla Rahman's veracious multi-dimensional and concentrated approach produces explicit paintings, admired by art lovers in Switzerland, the United States, South Korea, Turkey, Dubai, Pakistan and several other countries.Nimble-figured Shehla picks up an Italian brush, dips it into an Italian paint and outstretches her long slender arm to an Italian canvas to metamorphose her multiple conceptions, bright visions and deep-rooted aspirations into superb paintings, which coruscate and communicate underlying subjects of modern days her latest crusade being War Against Terrorism.
"I have waged a war against different social evils, violence against women, use of children in camel racing, child abuse, flesh trade, gang rapes and war against terrorism," says Shehla,a soul who worked under the direct supervision of Sadeqain in 1986 in Karachi, where she landed after returning from Malaysia, where she passed the best part of her life and graduated in art history from Kualalumpur where her father was a successful businessman. "I am trying to carry out my mission to highlight these evils" through my paintings, says multi-lingual Shehla. She is totally against violence and says that wherever violence exists and whenever, wherever, violence is committed, this must stop to make this world a peaceful place to live in, and she is particularly vocal when she speaks about the rights of women. Terror, torture and tears are her preferred themes as displayed in one of her outstanding paintings, showing a middle-aged Afghan woman, who was sold like a cheap commodity thirteen times between Rs. 500 and Rs. 20,000 in the sprawling industrial port city of Karachi infested with may social problems. With her high-rise projecting nose wearing a jumbo-sized artistically-designed silver `nath', attractive and sparkling `tika' oncurvy forehead, goldsmith's state - of -the-art created voluminous silver earings, tight-lipped Ms X revengefully stares with unblinking wide - open greenish eyes at social animals, as depicted by Shehla's close-set penetrating eyes in one of her widely appreciated painting. Aside from this, she paints with great ease and sophistication paintings of a working woman in rural Sindh, life at seashore, picturesque mountains and valleys with cascading rain water, energetic dancing horses and faithful dogs. "I have a special `Janoon' for horses, the most favourite of my father and grandfather, I derive immense pleasure from the natural scenes and try to depict them in my paintings," says Shehla who worked in Rome with senior Italian artist Yehya Shafi during 1987-88 and received the prestigious Sadequain award. Her paintings explains the concepts of sea moods which she paints with painterly skills. Her sea concepts are amazing and she highlights different moods of sea when it is tranquil or ferocious. Her strokes are forceful and yet balanced with sea tides. She has participated in an exhibition in Turkey with international artists from 22 countries and painted portrait of Kamal Attaturk and received a covetous award from Governor of Anatalya, Turkey. Shehla has also painted for Prince Karim Aga Khan and King of Malaysia Azlan Shah. She s qualified as a candidate and her name was included in the 1998 edition of international Who's who of Professionals. "The number of paintings are increasing day-by-day and the living space is shrinking," said Shehla as she spread out her long arms wide to show that she was painting on different themes simultaneously, which reflect her command over paintings. Her art speaks as she brushes paint passionately creating meaning out of uncertainty. She describes beauty and looks deeper for identity. Her painting is a language, which needs to be felt and understood. To focus a beauty on a canvas requires a genius of its kind. The bright colours and innovative patterns tell tales of her creation. Currently she is working on terrorism and comments "earlier I painted what was beautiful: now I paint what is ugly and terrorism is ugliest in its spirit. |
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