TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The calligraphy paintings displayed on the walls of exhibition room at Pakistan embassy looked prominent among other paintings. Shehla Rehman, the painter, came to Indonesia to hold her solo exhibition entitled “Spirit of Pakistan” on June 26.
Shehla painted her calligraphy using different technique from other calligraphy which is commonly seen in Indonesia. In addition to the eye-catching colors, she also put an effect to the word “Allah” in her painting to look like it was shining. Shehla used the Nasta’iq letter for her calligraphy. The letter was firstly used by the Persian and developed in Pakistan and India during the 15th century. The characteristic of this letter is that it would look floating on the canvas.
Shehla brought along 30 canvases with her and tagged her painting with price ranging from US$400 to US$500.
“All the paintings are new. It was made in two months,” said Shehla during the opening.
Since 1985, the woman who was born in Lahore, Punjab Province, has been holding numerous exhibiyion both in inside or outside her country such as in France, South Korea, Afghanistan, and India. Among her renown international exhibition was the one in Karachi under the theme of Terrorism. There, Shehla painted women who were tortured by terrorist in her country.
In addition to the calligraphy, Shehla also displayed paintings of scenery and portraits which can be categorized in realist style. In her paintings, she portrayed various activities of people living in Pakistan such as a group of youngster playing polo and a woman dancing in saari, Pakistani traditional attire.
For Shehla, the country is where the Eastern Islamic culture converged with Indian Hindhu. “I want to show Pakistan to the world,” she said.
ANANDA BADUDU
