Golnaz Taherian | Arts Editor
Featured Image: Khan notes that Batik is a convenient artistic method, since it is so mobile. | Hanad Adan
‘Landscape of Loss’ is a painting and photography exhibition by second-year visual arts student Asifa Khan. Located at the Gales Gallery in Accolade West, this exhibition powerfully depicts the effects climate change and natural disasters have had on the tropical islands of Trinidad and Tobago.
Khan drew inspiration for the exhibition directly from hiking in Trinidad, her native country. While exploring the island, she noticed that, despite all the natural beauty and tranquility, there was an accumulating of garbage.
Khan aims to show the ugly side of these two islands, which are well-known tourist attractions for affluent travellers. Moreover, she wants to bring awareness to the importance of preserving a clean and sustainable ecosystem. Her exhibit powerfully achieves both ends.
Khan uses the Batik technique for her paintings. First, she takes a somewhat thick, plain brown cotton cloth. She sketches out her design, and then draws over the design with wax.
“There’s a hot wax in the pen that I draw with. The hot wax drips out; it just runs out through the pen, and that’s how I do the lines. The wax seeps into the material and seals it, so when colour passes over the wax line, it doesn’t stain where the wax is touched,” she says.
Khan notes that Batik is a convenient artistic method due to its mobility—she simply rolls up her cloth, and packs it into a little bag. Also, since dye gets directly absorbed into the material, she doesn’t have to wait long for it to dry.
The exhibitions’ photography is raw and visceral. In “Flooding due to tropical storm,” the artist has organized some photographs from the brutal flood that hit Trinidad this year. The photos depict the violence of a flood, and how it destroys whole communities. In one photo, there are three men sitting on a pallet with a bucket, rowing with resigned expressions.
During the flood, Khan notes, many people gathered what they could from their houses and crafted makeshift rafts. A few people were lucky enough to possess kayaks.
In Khan’s painting, “Cracked,” she beautifully depicts a Trinidadian island with cracked rocks. Khan mentions that this painting was inspired by the recent, October earthquake. The quake, which was below sea level, severely damaged one of the islands. The artist says: “If you pass by it on a boat, it looks like somebody cut the island in half.”
York has left a positive impress upon Khan’s art. She notes that everyone in the studio is supportive and helpful, and that it’s easy to solicit advice, especially from professors. She highlights the major impact Brian Grosskurth, a visual art and art history professor, had upon her exhibition. Grosskurth was the one who pushed her to do the exhibition, and helped her during the process.
Within all the pain and destruction, the centrepiece of Khan’s exhibit is the theme of hope. A painting entitled “Gentle” simply features two hands picking a flower. As the artist says: “If we can be this delicate with something that we wanna pick like a flower, then we need to be delicate with everything.”
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