LAHORE - The Bachelor of Fine Arts thesis degree show opened at Punjab University’s Old Campus on Tuesday where 17 students showcased their artworks.

Department of Fine Arts Head Naila Amir told The Nation that students were studying painting, printmaking and sculpture at the department. “I am glad my students have tried to highlight through their work the issues, which are often neglected in the society, and developed their own style and statement in their artworks,” Naila said.

Syeda Mehwish Shahid, one of the students who had put their artworks on display, said, “My painting is a symbolic representation of egocentric and selfish nature of today’s human beings. The collective image of fish denotes ruthlessness and selfish nature of the mighty. Same is the case with this Siamese Betta fish; it feeds on the weaker ones of its own kind. It lives with them and eats them when it no longer finds them useful,” she said.

Student Zunaira Sultan said, “My work is a series of events that depict our lives. The phases everyone goes through, how they change us forever and how we redeem ourselves from the evil living with us,” she said.

Qurat Al Ain Tahir, who showcased her sculpture, said, “Usually, what I see in my dreams doesn’t belong to the real world and my work is to make these dreams look like real. I want to provoke eerie feelings in viewers through my experiential space; there are some unusual forms of floating in the space,” she said.

Saba Tanveer said, “My paintings represent the fact that considering the front ignorance of ‘The other side’ is a socially constructed phenomenon that we should look upon once. Both sides should and must be given equal importance,” Saba said.

The sculpture of Zubia Ejaz was based on the memorable time of her old house where she spent her childhood. She said that a memory may be psychological mechanism awakened at certain moments to protest against your past. “Sometimes in your life you want to recollect your memories, but since you can’t go back to your past, it remains embedded in your mind forever. Since I moved to a new house where the things are modern, I badly miss the veranda of my old home. In my work, I have recreated things that I have seen; all the things that I did when I was a child,” she said.

Aun Raza highlighted the importance of sacrificial animals. “My paintings are about the Sunnat of Hazrat Ibrahim (A.S) that we Muslims celebrate every 10th of Zilhaj,” he said.