:: Art for awareness ::

By Zohaib Saleem Butt

Once I read somewhere in a book that when God wants to bring a revolution in some society or in a country, He bestows that society with good thinkers, philosophers, critics, writers and artists. These people depict the harsh realities of the society on the surface and highlight the loop holes of the society with a solution, in order to bring a change. Therefore, a society cannot make progress unless or until its youth plays its pivotal role in its creation. And the youth cannot play its role in a better way until it acquires a proper and high education with the sense of creativity.

Such talented sense of creativity which highlighted the social issues and problems along with their solutions was observed in the main hall of the old campus of the university, in the College of Art and Design University of the Punjab last week, where about thirty eight students displayed their final year theses. These students worked on public service awareness by representing the social issues.



Mr. Adil Shehzad a young and talented guy worked on the theme of The Real Face of Lahore, focusing on the Mughal era buildings like: the old fort, Sheesh Mehal, Hazori Bagh, Shalimar garden, Badshahi and Waristan mosque. The purpose of his theme was to promote tourism in our country. He was of the view that a camera can never work like an eye! Therefore people themselves visit these monuments themselves. While talking to Red he said, "As compared to Indian, the ratio of tourists is very low in our country because the government is doing nothing to promote it, in spite of the fact that we have marvelous monuments of a rich ancient heritage and we don't even care to preserve it. Most of the time, our youth plays cricket in the vicinity of these precious monuments, so in such circumstances how can we even think of preserving them." In conclusion he pleaded to the government to pay attention to these historic monuments as through them we can promote our culture and get plenty of money by developing and promoting our tourism department."



Ms Wajeeha Khalid worked on the theme of SOS children's villages. She highlighted the basic rights of the children by projecting them in a novel way. She used happy images of the children instead of sad ones. She tried to depict how they look beautiful when they gain the basic rights of education, security, protection, love, home and proper diet. She stated that children are the upcoming youth of society therefore they should be facilitated in a better way in order to make them confident citizens.



Muhammad Farhan focused on the Ministry of Heath and drew attention to the four major diseases like polio, aids, cancer and hepatitis. His core purpose was to educate people about these deadly diseases and make them aware about the precautions they can take. He depicted that these disease are abhorrent, not the victims and his targeted audience was the upper class, for they are knowledgeable and can make those working under them like servants aware of the harm of such diseases. He aimed to make parents realize that with a little care they can protect their children from these fatal diseases. His message was 'fight the virus, not the victims'.



Asif Javed depicted the twenty-fifth anniversary of Ajoka theatre. He paid tribute to the performance of this institution and the service they have rendered in bringing a change in society. He stated, "Ajoka theatre has played a very significant role through its plays. They have brought into light social issues like peace, corruption, equality, women education and violence against women in our society."



Omer Aqil was quite the centre of attention of the audience for his much liked and passionate theme Iqbal Revisited to Stimulate the Nation. This young and talented lad highlighted western influence on our culture, especially the way our youth are adopting it. He depicted the change the youth can bring on an individual and collective level. His presentations were philosophical and thought provoking, which not only revived the energy of the viewer but awakened a desire to lead a successful life. His thesis display presented those golden rules which offer the salvations of half of our problems we face in our life just because of the old concepts we have lost. He projected the themes of controlling one's nufs, and all those golden rules that Iqbal focused on throughout his life in order to lead a balanced and successful life. At the end he depicted that there is a need for change and there should be a revolution that can be brought by the youth.



Banish Khan worked on the theme of Awareness about Unsafe Kite Flying. She vividly depicted how this colourful and enjoyable pastime can lead to death and bloodshed. She said that kite flying has become part of the culture of our society and it should not be banned. The use of loud music and bullets should be banned instead of this aspect of our culture. Her illustrations depicted scenes of power failure caused by kite flying and all those mishaps which occur on the eve of basant just because of the callous behaviour of some.



Mehwish Hidayat's theme was Youth Empowerment. She brought into focus the fact that the youth is the real power of any society. She depicted the optimistic side of youth rather than the depressive. She presented a solution with a hope by focusing on the present scenario of empowerment which youth have to face.



Kamran Yousaf effort was to spread awareness about environmental issues with the theme, Save Trees and plant Trees. In his view, life without greenery is incomplete and he feels suffocation when he looks at the decreasing numbers of plants and trees around him. His simple yet beautiful work in green photo execution change was great.



Raffia Riaz worked on Wapda and Power Failure and she urged youngsters to conserve electricity. She presented a sketch, specially developed for children to motivate them to conserve electricity. The character she sketched symbolized a bright future for the children and she said that she used Urdu captions so that all those who can't read and understand English should be able to perceive her message.



Anna Anwer presented her thesis on the theme to Reduce Global Warming. She used photography and illustrations to convey her message. Through a chart she showed the quantity of harmful fumes that come from various forms of transport and in another chart she depicted the ratio of things alive, dead and near death on the surface of the earth and underwater. She also showed the glaciers and species which have vanished from the surface of the earth due to these noxious gases.



Aleena Iqbal projected the theme of poverty alleviation. She used the word ehsas and this is what we need in society. She portrayed the problems of poverty through her photography. She vividly depicted the conditions and circumstances which make life bestial and in her photos she used the grey area to present the dullness one feels around due to the poverty.



Kiran Saeed depicted the horrors of violence committed against women in our society. She draws attention towards the restricted rights of women in our society. Se decries the conditions women have to undergo after marriage, which in fact happens to be merely a deal. These themes were well portrayed in the pictures she displayed. She urged women to speak out for their rights.



Ms Yashal presented the fatal disease of aids in her thesis. She depicted the means whereby this disease spreads. The extensive knowledge she had gathered and the research she had done on the subject was quite obvious from her work. She personified the virus of aids to reflect how ugly this incurable disease was. While talking to Red she emphasized again and again that people should get themselves tested to check if they have HIV and therefore the potential to contract this dread disease.