MERCOSUL BIENNIAL: Crossing Territories Author: Dr. Maria Amelia Bulhões Originally published in NuktaArt, inaugural issue, May 2005 Cover Design: Sabiha Mohammad Imani Source of inspiration: Painting by Zubeida Agha, Karachi by Night, 1956 Mega events are a phenomenon of modernity…
Ask the inhabitants of Karachi for their observations on how their city functions, and one of the more common responses will be that they find Karachi to be in perpetual flux. The city portrays itself as a living, breathing organism.…
As a South Asian, one is more than likely to be familiar with chicken pattices or ‘patties’, and have seen them being served at least at one social gathering. These crispy, golden-brown pastries filled with soft, warm meat filling have…
It was a strange co-incidence, that the day Bashir Mirza died I had called him up but got no response. He had been unwell for a few weeks and I was hoping he was better and I would get to…
Asif Farrukhi and I were 'partners in crime' as he so often liked to joke. I had known Asif for so long that I really can't remember how we first met; perhaps we were introduced by Zaheer Kidvai. I must…
As I write about Asif, I feel a mix of emotions which include pride and honor as well as a sense of deep grief and disbelief. It has been more than a year now, yet I cannot come to terms…
Following the tradition of the modern painter, artist Qadir Jhatial mirrors the world around him through colorful abstraction on canvas as showcased in his second solo show Times of the Day. A graduate of the National College of Arts, Jhatial…
Questions of power, privilege and power relations are seldom asked in craft development. Paradoxically enough many craft development projects with artisanal communities are labelled as ‘empowerment’ yet fail to recognise power can manifest in the very act of craft making…
Language and its usage in Pakistan is a contentious issue; while Urdu is recognized as the national language
Recently in my research on decolonization I came across two museum projects that show an institutional commitment to revisiting the dark recesses of colonial history. In 2019 Manchester Museum, UK, commemorated hundred years since the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre (1919) that…