KARACHI – Contemporary artist Riffat Alvi has always explored life through art. Whether it is probing reality or questioning the quality of existence, her oeuvre remains centred on the nuances of the living experience. She visualised it as a sensory impression in her early exhibitions, and in her Moenjodaro phase, tried to grasp the essence of life among lost civilisations through Rothko-inspired colour fields. Her expression gained a more palpable presence when she began experimenting with earth pigments. Resonating with historical and religious connotations, her crude painterly applications of clay enabled her to conjure the mystical concept of ‘dust to dust’.
She voices her anxiety and distress through her art. She paints hordes of humanity – uncertain and abstracted – wandering in a cloud of confusion. She deliberately emphasises aimlessness and delusion in her paintings to reinforce her belief in life being glorious, purposeful and exuberant. A front-ranking modernist whose work has been in the public eye for over three decades, Alvi’s oeuvre has remained consistent in thought, but her expression is open to change and experiment.
Earlier attempts with oils, watercolours and pastels were soon overshadowed by her discovery and enduring fascination with earth pigments that eventually became her main mode of expression.
Her former crusty textures have given way to smooth surfaces, and her pigments now incorporate colours of minerals, saffron, water-based industrial hues, smoke fumes and metal. In sculpture, she has opted for sand-casting and firing her pieces to obtain, what she terms, ‘charred by the fire of hell appearance’.
Photos courtesy Canvas Gallery
