KARACHI: In one of his remarkable sonnets, William Shakespeare addresses the soul, exhorting it not to concentrate on the world outside, and try to enrich itself from within. The reason that he gives is that the body has a temporary presence on the planet Earth, not the soul. A two-person show titled Soft Cartographies focuses on the body… with a difference.

Misha Japanwala and Zahrah Ehsan are the participating artists. Their subject matter at first glance may look to carry an individualistic streak. It is not. A closer inspection would reveal something bigger, something of a grave social concern. The former homes in on the ‘shame’ that’s associated with the body and the latter equates it with the place where one lives as a member of a family.

For a clearer context, it would be interesting to know the artists’ mindsets. Misha says, “Bodies reimagined as landscapes: dynamic and shifting natural formations. These new works are a continuation of my series Topographies, in which bodies are cast and abstracted — embracing lumps, rolls, folds and crevices as celebrations of form, texture and colour.”

And Zahrah’s statement reads: “These paintings and drawings stem from the series called Bodyas Home, a metaphorical concept that places my physical self at the epicentre of my artistic practice. The body, an unchanging constant amidst the ever-changing backdrop of countries and cultures — like in Finland, Pakistan, and now the United States — becomes the vessel through which I convey the autobiographical motifs that resonate deeply within me.”

While Misha wants the viewer to construe what she has come up with, Zahrah’s images are there to be deconstructed — or is it the other way round? In both cases, the issue of ‘unsaid words’ comes to the fore. Be it the former’s ‘Meander’ (resin, acrylic gouache) or the latter’s ‘Fitting Room’ (oil on canvas) there’s lots in the frame that the artists want the viewer to reflect on — the kind of reflection that make an object turn into a subject… or the subject.

The exhibition concluded on Thursday.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2025