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Unveiling Artistic Feminism |
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by Salima Hashmi |
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The first decade of Pakistan's existence was fraught with political and social upheavals. The role played by women in the struggle for Independence and the Muslim League's movement for the formation of Pakistan was important, and occasionally crucial. This was especially true in urban areas where women's votes made a substantive difference in the 1946 elections, resulting in a resounding success for the Muslim League. The Vice-Chancellor of the Punjab University was only articulating the common assumption about the objectives of fine art teaching, i.e. to train women to be 'artistic', not 'artists'. Art education would 'enhance the natural proclivities of women', making them better 'home decorators', inculcating in them the finer sensibilities expected of mothers, wives, and daughters. In this first phase after Independence, women art educators laid the foundation for the teaching of art all over Pakistan, in schools, colleges, and universities. During the National Exhibition in Lahore, in 1983, women artists attending the inauguration met privately and drafted a manifesto for themselves. The two-page document was signed by fifteen women artists. Never made public due to the prevailing political circumstances, the preamble of the manifesto made its intentions clear:
Affirm the following principles to guide us in our struggle for the cultural There followed seven principles ~ which upheld the struggle for women's rights in the wider context of human rights and the movement for democratic freedoms. The document condemned the propagation of the obscurantist and discriminatory laws being enacted, and, by implication, it became a subversive tract. For most of the women present, putting their signature to the manifesto was their first experience in articulating such views in a group, and the first step towards consciously connecting their art to a socio-political reality. They were not alone. Women poets and writers had already taken the lead. Kishwar Naheed and Fahmida Riaz consolidated the genre that became 'subversive poetry'. As a symbol of fecundity, the female body was a prime site for provocation, an abode of sin and forbidden sensations. For women artists, the female body, its containment, concealment, and visibility became a matter for meaningful exploration. A world away, feminist artists in the West were rejecting female nudes as one of the obvious repositories of male-dominated art canons. For the Pakistani woman artist, the uncovering of the female body became a rallying call to the barricades. As the 1990s witnessed a succession of elected governments come and go in Pakistan, issues of patriarchy, sectarianism, and religious orthodoxy confronted civil society. Military paternalism continued; media and information technology surged into urban society, and artists found larger audiences and new patrons. (Extracted from "Memory, Metaphor, Mutations Contemporary Art of India and Pakistan" by Yashodhara Dalmia & Salima Hashmi. Oxford University Press, Price: Rs 2,950) |
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13-Jan-2007 | ||
More by : Salima Hashmi | ||
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