Vibrant strokes

By Smriti Daniel

The room is awash with colour, the walls alive with shifting patterns and shadows. In one corner flowers bloom, in another butterflies flutter, and in yet another men and women struggle mutely towards freedom. In this room, displayed side by side, you can see the visions of three young artists – Ushva Fairooz, Menaka Dharmapala, and Dhimyam Ahmed – crystallise and come alive.

Their exhibition was actually a part of their examination, explains Ushva, adding that the High School International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum requires Visual Arts students to experiment and develop multiple techniques and skills in their studio work. At the end of the course, students arrange and display their work for a visiting examiner, who then interviews each student, discusses their themes and development and examines their Research Workbook.

The work on display today is the result of two years of hard work and it is easy to trace the evolution not only of their skills but of their perspective as well. Each girl was required to choose a theme and 18-year-old Ushva's was 'Flowers.' "I was inspired by Nature, and flowers are one of the brightest, most colourful things in nature," she says simply. Her work which ranges from creations in pastel charcoal to origami, celebrates flowers in all their glory, though it is immediately evident that Ushva has a thing for Frangipani. She depicts stylised versions of the flower in pieces like the Andy Warhol inspired 'Pop Art' and the vividly coloured 'Exquisite.' At the apex of her achievement as far as she is concerned, however, is the heavily and intricately textured painting titled 'Blooming Sunflowers.'

"Since a very young age I've always been passionate about butterflies," says Menaka (19), who not surprisingly had no trouble whatsoever deciding on a theme. In spite of their ethereal delicacy, or perhaps because of it, for her butterflies represent the things that humans crave most – happiness and freedom – and the things that we are most susceptible to – colour and enchantment. "I'm not good with drawing people," she admits ruefully and it's obvious that her skill leans more towards rendering the almost kaleidoscopic patterns and colours that characterise butterflies. She chooses to play to her strengths for most part, though in pieces like 'Persona,' (depicting the simple curve of a woman's naked back with a butterfly tattoo high on her right shoulder) and 'Fascination Through Love' (a man and a woman in different time zones, each housing one half of a butterfly's wings instead of hearts) she attempts to explore the almost intangible link between the two forms.

'Freedom in Motion' her masterpiece, with its solid blue butterfly and rampaging streaks of colour is also Menaka's favourite. Explaining that she was inspired by American painter Jackson Pollock, Menaka, says that the painting for her is an exploration of how the varied experiences that life throws at us affect us, but can also leave us in essence, unchanged – still a solid blue beneath all the wild streaks of colour. Satirising society in her piece titled, 'Society,' Menaka uses a one-eyed cartoon with paper wings to play with the whole idea of how appearances, and particularly those of women, must bow to the dictates of the majority or risk being deemed unacceptable.

Her African inspired 'BWA Butterfly Mask' and the two entirely deconstructed pieces titled 'Half Wing,' pack a raw, yet potent punch, carrying as they do, the hint of something mystical.

Interestingly, Menaka also chose to work, with wire, cloth, plastic, ceramic and even rubber in the form of butterfly slippers. Combined with her paintings, the result is a selection that covers the spectrum from vibrant and startling to dreamy and fragile.
Dhimyam (18), the last of the artists, chose 'Freedom,' as her theme. Thought provoking and out there, many of the paintings are unapologetically hard hitting. 'Women With(out) Voices,' with its subjects sitting together – mouths crudely sewn shut – and 'Between Bars' (which places bars between you and the rest of the world) has you wondering who is on the inside and who is on the outside, are both good examples.

However, Dhimyan has a bit of fun too. In her piece titled 'Universal Freedom,' several hands coloured like the flags of different nations reach into the canvas. One hand, however, stays distinctly hand like, retaining its natural colours. Whose is it, you wonder? Laughingly, the young artist identifies it as none other than her own. Another sprawling piece, titled 'Mi Todo' is an intensely personal, colourful collage of dates and shapes important to Dhimyan herself. But her simplest, yet most amusingly provocative piece is the one she calls 'Sweet Freedom' – it features a pair of cuffs (made of clay?) lying resplendent on fake neon pink fur. Tongue in cheek, Dhimyan explains that the piece is one take on sexual freedom.

In the end, brave, outspoken, dreamy, thoughtful, strong yet vulnerable by turns – the art on display was all those things and more. Talking to the three young artists, I realised it was also something art should always aspire towards being – an expression of the things that most matter to the artist.