KARACHI: It generated excitement among art lovers when they got to know a few weeks back that a performance art event curated by Amin Gulgee and Sara Pagganwala titled Lal Jadoo was going to be held on Sunday in a building on I.I. Chundrigar Road. It did take place, with a great deal of flamboyance at that. But sadly, due to the coronavirus scare the public was requested to watch the live streaming of the programme’s various segments on the internet.

As for Lal Jadoo or red magic, the curators claimed that, as a term, red magic does not exist in our culture. Therefore the show was an attempt to open parallel realities to artists and viewers, and that it ventured to visualise the red space between black and white. They also described it as a “surrealist happening of simultaneous performances which intends to engage all five senses”.

Now, watching the performances participated by more than five dozen artists (hence, it’s difficult to talk individually about them) it was more than evident that the colour red was used as a multilayered symbol. Red, among other things, symbolises love, lust and anger. The masks put on by some of the performers elucidated the concept that was being put across, which is, what we hide lies somewhere between what we see as black and white. The patient who is wearing a mask and drawing something red on a notebook, for instance, appears to be physically sick. But his sickness could be interpreted as a non-physical ailment resulting out of a repressed feeling.

Movement, in such events, matters a lot. Because it suggests the idea that no matter what life throws at us or what we accept as ours, the show goes on, even at the cost of suppressed feelings.

The event was part of the International Public Art Festival organised by I Am Karachi.

Published in Dawn, March 19th, 2020