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Tucked away in a quiet lane, a street art event took place in Karachi to bring together participants and an audience that would normally shy away from the art gallery. According to Sabeen Mehmud, the moving spirit behind T2F, not only the tailors from the shops around, once convinced, enthusiastically participated but even the neighbours came to T2F for the first time, since it opened several years ago.
This is no mean achievement; in a city full of distrust and fear which has driven people off the street into parochial spaces, to be united in experience through art is rarer. This initiative not only started a dialogue around creativity — not the structured formal form that we recognise as visual art — but the intuitive expression that informs our ability to improvise and adapt with imagination. In a vacant plot next to the T2F one could see graffiti art being painted on the walls by young artists, and across the tailors were doing their own thing with materials and designs they are familiar with and in its midst stood a rickshaw, which epitomises Pakistan’s urban folk. The indoor space divided in small booths with hundreds of art works by fresh graduates led to conversations that helped artists heed the responses of a wider audience without the pressure of commerce.
The power of art to create such a sense of community participation has acquired greater importance and urgency wherever alienation fractures communal relations. Concerned citizens and governments alike have begun to use art for an interface between people, particularly immigrants who find themselves disenfranchised. Showcasing their cultural expression has often led to creating space for their narrative.
A model which was used by Citizens Archive to revisit the ‘Partition of 1971’ with the inclusion of Bangladeshi artists who presented their side of the story had the potential to be a catalyst for a debate on a subject most Pakistanis are uncomfortable with. Despite the impact of the work / performance the exchange could not engage a larger audience to explore diverse facets of this difficult issue. This is where curatorial strategy must not fall short and pro-actively seek collaborations with organisations that can engage the public at large with dialogue so the interpretation of history through art can be transformed into a tool of social awareness.
The censorship and violence that was seen at a Shanakht Festival a few years ago has pushed Citizens Archive into safer, more elite enclaves, but any organisation that deals with archiving and discussing history has to understand that their work is nothing short of a political act and they have to prepare themselves to deal with it. It’s time they partnered with social activists with similar objectives to create a better informed and vibrant society to increase their outreach and efficacy.
Yaminay Chowdary’s art project last winter was designed to give the Pakhtuns labourers a sense of belonging when they felt particularly threatened in Karachi. By arranging an impromptu event of live Pakhtun music in a busy area where a large number of Pakhtuns converge for their livelihood led to the creation of a new association with a location with negative connotations. Taken by surprise by familiar sounds played on special instruments competing with traffic noise as musicians emerged from different street corners, the Pakhtun taxi drivers, bus drivers and labourers responded with bewildered smiles and some broke spontaneously into a few steps of the traditional dance. This activation of memory in the most unexpected of places was a way to create a happy memory in an environment of tension and hostility. The curatorial voice remained in the background after facilitating the musicians which allowed the responsive audience to take centre stage in a moment of shared positivity, which was captured discretely on film.
The new association created with the unconventional curatorial strategy intervened with a new sense of hope and possibility. The execution of the project was by no means easy as the curator had to don a burqa to source and convince freelance musicians in remote Pakhtun settlements to join the project. To work in the public space is always risky especially in times that are tense. Even the task of convincing the traffic police to allow the music to continue for a short time when the traffic came to almost a standstill needed a firm belief in the power of art and its interventionist potency.
The community art happening, at T2F and for the Pakhtuns, if it must be given a label, had a specific aim, inclusion with the collapse of walls through art by vitalising intrinsic connection with creativity and cultural memory. The thele wallas who display their wares, the tailors who are often trusted to take fashion decisions for their clients, and phool wallas that constantly innovate with their garland design and bouquets and the truck and rickshaw decorators are the faceless street artists that are widely ignored. Recognising their talent and giving it respect can open the community to new social connections with an art that does not alienate.
