Pakistan: Land and life

This is the title of first solo exhibition of Sharjeel Anzar, held in PNCA (Pakistan National Council of Art) Islamabad.

Driving for 30 km in inclement weather with torrential rain pouring down, it was an evening well spent.

 A pleasant surprise to look at the pictures representing almost all genres of photography and a pleasure to know a multi-talented person, a bureaucrat, artist, poet and a music aficionado.

The pictures gave a panoramic view of our rich culture (or what it used to be), varied in themes and composition, with a common denominator of a deep love for the land and its people. In vivid colors, they portrayed a land of joy, peace and love.

A photograph, may appear a random click to a causal onlooker, but it carries an unmistakable signature of the artist, revealing inner depths of his/her subconscious. A picture is the gist of all the life experiences of an artist, of books read, of music enjoyed, of movies watched and even of all the dreams, ambitions and frustrations of life. This collection revealed depth of literary and aesthetic sense of a mature artist.

However, passing through the riots of colors and lights depicted in pictures, one could see a deep down nostalgia and a touch of melancholy. A yearning to run away from the rush of modern cosmopolitan life and take refuge in those times/ places where pace of life was slow and simple.

To capture the rapidly changing values, customs and life style of this land seems to be a desperate attempt to catch hold of fleeting sands of time. Exhibition looks like a dirge for lost innocence, of what this land used to be once; a hankering for reversal of all the degradation of materialism.

In landscapes, a lonely figure lost in grandeur of nature or in the gathering dusk, melting in fading colors and light reflects the deep down melancholy characteristic of a poet and a romantic by heart

A poem of Sharjeel Anzar may have been another good title for this exhibition 

I am in mourning

For the poems I could not write

For the dreams I could not carve

For the women I could not love

I am in mourning

Is he really in mourning for this land and its people?

#pakistan #punjab #art, #photogrpahy