KARACHI: A group of young artists exhibited their work during an event titled ‘Reading Between The Lines’ at Sanat Gallery in Karachi. Artists Abdul Aziz Meer, Minahil Hafeez, Onaiz Taji, Rehman Younas, Sidrat ul Munteha, Wajeeha Batool showcased their work at the exhibition. Visitors were of the view that the human race lives in and around systematic grids of invisible arrays of linear nature – in manners both aware and unaware. The linear nature of events, human activities, time and physical spaces affect the daily lives and eventually the broader history. Traces of line can be found in everyday life in multiple ways. The importance of linearity is such that almost all of human actions function through multi-layered networks of all kinds including physical, spiritual and cognitive. The stillness of line is striking. Director of Sanat Gallery Marchant said that the line serves as one of the foundational units in visual experiences. It is a component so enormous that its role is independent of representation and abstraction. Both the two major visual experiences, representational and abstract, rely fundamentally on the way line is conducted to form the visual occurrences. The possibilities of line are numerous. It can formulate visual experiences while also being an experience in itself. The presence of line has been intact since pre-historic times to the current day in all major visual movements. Art being an action within life, largely functions as life does in an ascending way. It is similar to the idea of time, which is perceived as a forward linearity, like a travel. Haider Ali an artist said that Minahil’s work is about how we live in a chaotic world, where life always seems to be complicated, however, there is an order within it. It is not a maddening chaos. Every individual finds their own way to simplify the complications and during this process, patterns are created around us. Ali also discussed about Abdul Aziz that his own body is used as a medium to make impressions on paper making a tactile texture of the body with distorted forms formed in a feeling of ambiguity. Fahad Saleem shared his views that Onaiz was really inspired by the qalam or the line work. He keeps exploring the techniques of his brush and pushing the limits of his stroke and control. The line is important in his work because he views it as the defining characteristic of the people in his pieces, yet the line is both unique and different at the same time. Muzzamil Khan who looks an experienced artist and he knew more about Rehman told that he has been experimenting primarily with the fiber, a material that is severely fragile and struggles at a micro footprint in an effort to highlight its presence parallel to the density we expect as the celebrated product. Experimentation led to various arrangements with the repetition of the fiber-prototype. Muzzamil also brought Sidrat-ul-Munteha’s work saying that she experiences the joy of life through enchanting the art of infinite lines. A multi layered environment where shadows and lines merge into circular motion. Her abstract forms suggest that the lines and shapes have a principal role for the overall composition of the image. In her artwork, Wajeeha uses simple lines, curves, angles, and color to create movement and flow. She explores the relationship or contrast between organic structures and geometric forms. The grid in her work connects different layers and elements together, thus creating a new pattern. The basis of the exhibition on view is line and its various visual aspects as interpreted by the participating artists. There is a review of abstraction, landscape, figure, form and geometry. There is stillness as well as the moving nature of line, which has been explored in this exhibition. The almost blurred-looking figures overlapped by versatility of bold lines in works by Abdul Aziz are negotiations between real and surreal. The geometric abstraction formed out of thousands of lines in Minahil’s works remind of systematic nature. Published in Daily Times, December 3rd 2017.