In the recent past, there has been an influx of counterfeit art of Pakistani modern masters; M.A. Chughtai (1894-1975), Ustad Allah Bux (1895-1978), Sadequain (1930-1987), Ahmed Parvez (1926-1979), Ismail Gulgee (1926-2007), Bashir Mirza (1941-2000) and Eqbal Mehdi (1946-2008), just to…
In his famous novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell (1903-1950) clearly expresses a concept by giving chapter 19 an incipit that read: “He who controls the present, controls the past. He who controls the past, controls the future.” Orwell's stinging tone…
Monsoon season is synonymous with certain given aspects in Pakistan regardless of the city. Karachi, probably is one of the worst affected cities at the height of the season. Where we witness the challenges, there are also scenes that give…
In 1990 Arjun Appadurai wrote a seminal article called “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy”; expanding upon the ramifications of a global village within a cultural context, Appadurai introduced readers to the dynamic diasporic strands of globalization that…
Manuscript making and illumination in the Indian Mughal courts has been a well-recognized high-art form in South Asia between the fifteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Emperors, such as Akbar (b.1542-1605) and Shah Jahan (b.1592-1666), frequently posed on terraces of their…
A. R. Nagori once proclaimed that he had “earned the distinction of being the first painter in the Subcontinent to be censored.”80 He certainly wasn’t the last. How a state attempts to censor and censure artists ultimately reveals not only…
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…
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
