Vol 17, 69th Edition – Article

TEXT: LAILA REHMAN
VISUALS: COURTESY ASIF KHAN STUDIO, ROHTAS2

Salima Hashmi’s name is synonymous with the word Art – I use the capital A with deliberation. Artist, teacher, mentor, friend, advisor, wise woman, and a lifelong learner, she epitomizes and embodies all these roles with grace, wisdom and dignity. Hashmi has been involved one way or another in all seminal, necessary and history changing ventures and movements related to art-making in Pakistan, since her initiation in this field, more than six and a half decades ago.

Hashmi’s hidden middle name is Resilience, for as a child she witnessed the wrongful incarceration of her father, Faiz Ahmad Faiz, and his exile. She has lived, worked through and supported many people since the 1980s, under General Zia ul Haq’s regime. She has continued to witness and lived through subsequent political turmoil and trouble in the country; sheltering many, leading the way, going to prison, and always making her paintings, drawings, photographs, prints, and acting both on stage and on television. Inevitably, these experiences have made her the woman she is today, strong, thoughtful, reflective and at heart, deeply loving.

It was almost melancholic to witness the trajectory of thought that was so visible in the recent retrospective exhibition at Tollington Market in Lahore, “…And then came Spring…”, (Rohtas 2 in collaboration with Lahore Literary festival and National College of Arts).