The Pakistan Art Forum supports emerging artists dealing with feminist or LGBTQ themes, allowing unconventional voices to emerge.
It first used social media and digital platforms to feature more eclectic and inclusive artists and styles. After the pandemic, the forum also set up a physical address that serves as a safe space for artists, allowing them to push boundaries and start a dialogue about queer and LGBTQ identity politics, sexuality, and power, all while challenging patriarchy — taboo themes in Pakistan.
“Throughout the ages, art has been a medium of reform, resistance, used to highlight various social dilemmas,” Imtisal Zafar, founder of PAF, tells DW. “It is important for us to not only curate aesthetically appealing shows but also to use art to shed light on various issues.”
Subverting stereotypes about Pakistani women through art
Human rights violations and atrocities against women in Pakistan have gained more visibility through social media and reports, and the situation is being increasingly denounced by artists challenging the country’s patriarchal social system. Many of them have adopted a decidedly feminist stance.
Shehzil Malik has gained international renown for depicting powerful Pakistani women and femininity. Her works deal with the everyday and structural misogyny faced by women.
While Malik’s portrayals of feminine strength are almost otherworldly, fantastical, and supernatural, Zainab Aziz is a young emerging artist showing feminine strength in another creative way by focusing on the mundane.
A painting showing a woman who has someone sticking their hand into her pants.A painting showing a woman who has someone sticking their hand into her pants.
Zainab Aziz humor thoroughly comments on how a patriarchal society image is controlling women: Zainab Aziz.
Aziz works primarily with oil paints and has a signature style featuring a monochromatic palette and large voids in her representations. Through black-and-white contrasts, she aims to highlight social hypocrisy.
“My work revolves around female protagonists, the way they share their secrets and bond. I consider the female body as a landscape of a society with multiple stories,” says Aziz.
Three pieces from her second solo show, “Misty Tales of Women,” document everyday, habitual moments of women’s lives, depicting how they are expected to trust their surroundings and what society demands of them blindly.
A painting of three women covering up each others’ eyes. A painting of three women covering up each others’ eyes.
This work by Aziz depicts intergenerational trauma and how women are expected to conform to social normsImage: Zainab Aziz.
Aziz, who has received training from Pakistan’s College of Art & Design and the National College of Arts, recognizes that the institutions have allowed her to polish her artistry. Still, she laments the lack of connections for young and emerging artists to break through.
“I have faced many difficulties as a Pakistani artist, as we don’t get the exposure we deserve, domestically or internationally. One has to struggle by themselves to make their name in the art world,” says Aziz.
She points out that the Pakistan Art Forum is the only platform in the country that supports emerging and young talents. According to Aziz, PAF’s unique proposition is that they help relatively new artists sell their work immediately by encouraging, supporting, and guiding them to showcase their work in galleries and helping them get media exposure.
The founder of PAF, Imtisal Zafar, explains that his mission is to support artists with a diverse portfolio. He routinely visits university art shows of graduating students to discover new talent. He first met Aziz at her thesis show in 2017.
Source: DW
