when i walk on roads..

...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.

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

MA Degree Show '09

“We continue to see what we will rather than what there is”- (Wright Morris)

There are traces, endless stories, mystery, doubt and apprehension in my vision; all jumbled with facts and sensations, like what we see on walls.

These images are documentation of an installation i did for my MA degree show at Central Saint Martins. i used tracing paper rolls which were drawn upon and bits of the drawings were cut. photographic images were projected onto these cut outs.

Curious with my fascination of the everyday life, the constructions that interrupt our daily movement and my fascination with what we term as ‘living in a window punctuated world’ I developed an interest in viewpoints, line and perspective. I feel these can be altered, constructed, de-constructed, confused and manipulated to constantly change and determine our visual experience. Interested in the skeletal structures of living places I take reference of spaces in their linear state while being constructed or deconstructed. These to me are spaces that can only be seen but not occupied, places that are to be lived in but not.

I like working with impermanent materials that I can manipulate from time to time. Therefore, narrowing down the right material to execute my work proved to be a problem as I found myself experimenting with a lot of materials. I have been working with tracing paper rolls which are drawn upon, carved into and then layered making a series of semi-translucent palimpsests. I have been experimenting with slide projectors making them a part of the drawings, most importantly for there redundant existence and ability to manipulate the visual content, as the bulb inside begins to bleach the slides. Moreover, it gives me less control over my work, which in my opinion is important to attain the natural yet, the re-constructed.

Drawings and Projections

... and those houses, they will never live again.

 I came to London with a keen interest in the cityscape. I have since been working with subject matters that involve urban landscape, social politics and where art fits in for reasons I am still not fully aware of. Perhaps it is this void that lies between visual imagery and reason that makes me increasingly curious of the workings of my urban landscape. At the moment I feel the most important part of my practice is the process that goes behind creating these visuals. Inspired by the idea of constant change and layering I often find myself playing with imagery as if playing with toys (or building blocks). By adding, subtracting and continually changing the form of my visuals, I enjoy creating various settings and dialogues.

Interm Show

Projection using multiple slide projectors

I have been working with photographs for a while now. Before the CSM interm show i was taking shots of my walks in london. I wanted to take the exterior and make it a part of an interior, creating a more 3-D visual effect. Thus using slide projectors i felt gave the photographs a new dimension; creating a new space altogether by using 4/5 images of different spaces.