The 2022 exhibition The Spark brought together Aimen Manzoor, Amna Rahman, Khadijah Rehman and Zara Asgher at Satrang Art Gallery in Islamabad.
Using gouache, gold leaf, etching and oil painting, the artists examined instinctive connections with people, places and daily routines.
Ordinary scenes made psychologically unstable
Aimen Manzoor focused on repetitive actions and apparently mundane situations. Stark colour and altered composition made familiar scenes feel less secure, while empty spaces suggested people missing from the frame.
Khadijah Rehman drew from family photographs and the traditions of Persian and Mughal miniature painting. Vivid patterns, animals and dreamlike motifs transformed remembered relationships into layered tableaux.
The female body navigating space
Amna Rahman and Zara Asgher both addressed the movement of women within patriarchal environments.
Rahman painted women inside spaces she considered safe, where they could speak, rest and occupy their surroundings without visible tension.
Asgher examined the gendered character of public space in Pakistan, especially its heavy occupation by male bodies. Repeated figures became a way of mapping hierarchy and unequal access.
Curator Zara Khan described the exhibition’s “spark” as a positive or negative response: attraction, comfort and camaraderie, but also foreboding, anxiety or discomfort.
The four artists interpreted that force through daily life and social interaction. The Spark connected intimate feeling with larger structures, showing that an instinctive response to a room or another body can carry the pressure of memory, family and public power.