Ahmed Parvez was intensely devoted to his art, in fact there was nothing that was not intense about him. He had strong opinions and often disagreed with his peers. Compromise in life did not come easily to him either. His…
A tribute to Riffat Alvi at the Arts Council brought together dozens of people who know and love her. Among them were friends and fellow artists such as Meher Afroz and Ghalib Baqar--- we have all known Riffat for nearly…
The millions who live in the cities of today are often polarized by economic stratification and ideological differences; the social rupture can be further exacerbated by heavy state policing of public spaces. In a tense cityscape like this, public art…
Every time I entered the Indus Gallery in Bath Island, I was struck by the strong presence of Imam Sahib, as Ali Imam was popularly known. He sat in the small room at the entrance, watching over all who visited,…
An art museum can serve as a powerful monument, a place where histories can be revisited, reclaimed, and given a new voice. The oldest museums in our country are archaeological in nature, framed by perspectives constructed by outsiders. The narratives…
At midnight I stood looking at the sky, feeling the excitement of the birth of a new year through the lens of my 10-year-old granddaughter. The fireworks were spectacular, the sound of firing deafening, and the pervasive smell of gunpowder…
Stories are always powerful, they are fragments of the self that we give wings to. They can be born as art, musical scores, film, poem or performance, as an outpouring of all that has gestated, sometimes it means peeling of…
In a recent interview on Al Jazeera, Shahidul Alam, the eminent photographer, activist, and founder of Dirk Picture Library (Dhaka)— while speaking on world conflicts— shared that people don’t learn from history because the official history, in most cases, is…
The arrival of Freedom Boat— flying maritime flags specially created by artists Nicole Eisenman and Rosalind Nashashibi with artists, curators, filmmakers and writers as passengers— docked near Giardini, and then engaged all those present with reading in support of Palestine. Not only was…
The boundary wall of Press Club was covered with larger-than-life portraits of iconic women of Pakistan (2016). This gesture of acknowledgement commissioned by the I Am Karachi campaign was painted by truck artists from the urban art collective, Phool Pati.…