Monday 21 December 2009

...and the walls reappear again.

'Politics' is a term familiar to everyone in Karachi. people in this city breathe politics, it forms an integral part of their daily lives, a recurring cause of their worries but also providing them with entertainment, its talons spare no one in this city...

'Contemporary Art' a term known to a handful of the educated class is practised by some, understood by a few and not known to a majority.

In a city where politics and social disturbance is at its peak, the common man has just one priority, i.e. to make ends meet. Art to them is for rich people, who can enjoy it and appreciate it because they have means to do so.

This was the time when I began noticing the walls around me and perhaps from time to time I started to ignore conventional forms of art and notice just the walls, the unintentional way of being - art.




the white paint is splashed and then grafftited upon by people belonging to a political group to hide what was earlier sprayed by another political party. The 'red text' spells Manzur in urdu which in english means 'acceptable'.

however i framed the image such that only one segment of the word is photographed. the whole word was actually to be read as 'Na manzur' whih mean unacceptable. its a common MQM (leading political party in karachi) phrase, seen on alot of walls.


Friday 18 December 2009






this is a...well id call it a painting if now a mural.
i did this while spending lots of time out on streets on karachi photographing the walls
i painted it on a remaining wall of my studio making it look like a wall one sees out on the streets. it was also a reponse to my to my research on contemporary art practice in Karachi. ...gallery art which the comman man never gets to see and understand and art that is unintentional