KARACHI: Albert Camus’ piece The Myth of Sisyphus has inspired many works of art —poems, novels and paintings. The reason is simple: it speaks of the mundaneness and perfunctory nature of life: the character from Greek mythology, Sisyphus, is asked to push a boulder up a mountain, it falls down, and he has to push it up again… and keep doing it over and over endlessly.

One can’t say with certainty whether the artist from Mali named Lassina Kone had that character in his mind when he gave an intriguing performance on Sunday evening in the Arts Council’s Jaun Elia open air space with more than half a dozen red drums. It was very well received.

The artist enters the arena to slow psychedelic music and looks at the four drums standing upright, and three on the ground lying vertically. He moves gingerly and extends his hand towards one of them standing in the corner, then walks up to the one in the centre, touches it, or tries to touch it, and slides towards another to the right. The next move is to get to the top of one in the centre and roll with it.

As the pace of the music quickens, Kone’s energies go a notch or two up, too. In fact, there comes a time when the music reaches crescendo that he rolls over and falls off the drums almost involuntarily. Near the end of the act, he gives the impression that things have settled down. He brings all the drums together in a particular shape giving them a semblance of normality. But the question remains: can normality sustain?

The performance, which was part of the ongoing World Culture Festival, titled Don Sen Folo was unique and had the audience’s undivided attention.

Published in Dawn, December 1st, 2025