Musawir Shabbir is one of the most promising artists working today in Pakistan. He is a master of the mediums of drypoint and drawing. His acute eye gives us only what we absolutely need to see. In his careful directing of our gaze to these disenfranchised animals he is allowing us room to make the connection between their state and the state of humanity.
His sensitive observation of line, form and subject matter are each so considered, so thought upon, so intimate, that to view the work feels almost like an unbearable intrusion into the artist’s personal world. In his honest working, and in his choice of subject matter; the stray dogs and a broken winged bird, Musawir brings to our notice the human condition. His poor, unregarded, unkindly treated animals are of course meant to be equated with human beings. Their condition recalls war torn countries, war torn states, war torn families and asks us, as viewers to pause a minute and gaze with some shred of empathy on these misfits, which are a metaphor for the misfits that we are ourselves. Humankind is the ravager of our Earth. We need to contemplate and recognize the thoughtless harm that we inflict on others, in our daily dealings with each other.
The incomplete spaces which should be there, delineating the bodies of the strays and the ignored, speak to our lives today which are lived at a fast pace, leaving no room for communication, for allaying fears and for offering comfort. This is an indictment of our society and our world. It is a most frightening world that we inhabit. Musawir Shabbir’s concerns are simply portrayed in this exhibition, but they possess the quiet enduring power to shift and change us, to make us pause and to rethink and reconsider.
