Five years before Waheeda Baloch stood on Bagh Ibne Qasim’s Katrak Band Stand as curator of the Fourth Karachi Biennale (KB24)—with the sun setting before her, and the biennale beginning¾ she was a participating artist at the same location, for…
To search for poetic nuances in contemporary narratives of human conflict, politics of land, and geographical divide, one may look towards the renditions of nature in art practices from the past and present. Countries are marked through the contour lines…
‘Meri awaaz hi pehchaan hai’ The Indian poet Gulzar might have penned the verse for the likes of Talat Hussain--- people who have been bestowed with a voice that is hard to forget. When it is recalled or replayed, it…
As the morning sun awakes from its slumber over Karachi, the bustling city comes alive with a rhythm and energy of its own. As I look out my car window on the way to school, the racing dewdrops are not…
In the late 1700s, wealthy Europeans eating from pewter plates died when they consumed tomatoes. For over a hundred years they feared the fruit, ignorant that their tableware combined with a tomato’s acidity caused lead poisoning1. In the subcontinent, brass…
TURKISH PAINTING in the Light of its Historical Traditions Author: Jale Nejdet Erzen Originally published in NuktaArt, Vol 1, Two, October 2006 Cover Design: Sabiha Mohammad Imani Source of inspiration: Painting by Sumaya Durrani and images taken from Karkhana Although…
When we contemplate the origins of visually mapping environments the first image that comes to mind are paintings and pictographs found in prehistoric caves and early sanctuaries; these rudimentary drawings became the foundational syntax of social communication systems that provide…
It’s a curious twist of fate when you discover that not only do you share a name --- with just a slight variation in spelling --- with a renowned artist across the border, but you also share the same birth…
In 1944 a spiky haired boy tried teaching himself swimming, using a clay pot for assistance in the West Bengal River. Abul Mansoor Ahmed—as he was then known—was curious and regularly in trouble. As an adult he would do weighty…
Curated by Waheeda Baloch, the fourth Karachi Biennale titled ‘رزق | Risk --- Food, Futures & Fair Practices’, foregrounds socio-economic and political complexities surrounding local and global food systems and traditional dietary customs, and their entanglement with human practices, culture, heritage,…