Artistic expression has always leaned towards, and looked upon the world to draw a voice from. The world around us (and the realities coming from it) is the elemental and indispensable vehicle for creation. Art is not meant to be solipsistic, nor is the artist detached from the world. Its construal is compounded through context, often allegorical.
Political art, tantamount to critical art, upsets status quo by challenging overriding histories in order to confront systematic positioning of socio-political narratives. Rebelling against power structures and systems in play at state level, and in an effort to anticipate a moral and just world, it becomes precarious and treacherous if the construct divulges from vulnerabilities in order to assist a partisan or self-serving agenda.
State institutionalized bodies have a stronghold in deciding what is considered ‘fitting’ for public spaces. This inclination can also be one of the many reasons contributing significantly to underfunding all forms of arts in Pakistan— a form of censorship, if you will. Moreover, the employment of under-prepared government employees, and state retirees, in significant cultural positions has been a major cause of concern and central to the absence of progression and evolution of the arts and culture within the country.
The discernibility of political commentary through the highly charged installation, Killing Fields of Karachi, warranted a double impact: state coercion and the regulated reaction of the art fraternity. The latter was divided in its sentiments and support, layered with confusions and sides to take. A short spell of synchronized public performances and show of support for Suleman took place at the site of destruction. Short lived, because the support seemed to be more for the artist whose work had been vandalized and creating an obstinate stance against the KB Trust rather than aiming the embodied reaction against censorship and state-led vandalism. The general public, oblivious and unconcerned, was busy posing to be photographed against the backdrop of the rubble, the colonial structure and the greenery.
Censorship takes many forms: demolished sculptures, removed, tampered or damaged paintings, photographs and video installations, sealed exhibition spaces, opinions muzzled and artists incarcerated. Clampdown of freedom of expression, through state intervention, social media platforms, government institutionalized religious groups, private individuals and more, constrains and vetoes critical thinking thereby enforcing the artist to involuntarily participate in self-censorship. Public sentiments, on the other hand, are true to the spirit of making. The artist engages with his/her own position and feelings towards the evolving idea and its manifestation, to correspondingly impact the sentiments of the spectator. This should factor in as a dominant principle to take into consideration when the artist is conceptualizing a piece of art for public consumption.
The rights of artistic freedom of artists and activists especially those being critical of governments, and of governing ideologies, however, are often quashed— ones that resist overriding narratives—not by the public, but by the dominating institution; with no clear rationale against the censorship. In the case of Killing Fields of Karachi, to annihilate and eliminate attention over the unconstitutional extra-judicial killings highlighted through the installation which galvanized intimate spaces inside and outside of the Frere Hall building.
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