meethapani

Closer to the Edge Travelling through the sprawling city of Karachi with its mix of five star hotels, Raj buildings, Defence and Clifton mansions, Nazimabad and Korangi, [1] and the many inner city streets with strange names, crowded streets, diesel fumed buses and traffic jams, it is difficult to believe it is a historic city The history of Karachi is ancient.  It was a pilgrimage site for both Hindus and Muslims. The temple of Mahadev at Kothari Parade is mentioned in the Ramayana; Ram and Sita, heroes of the Ramayana are said to have spent a night on the way to their pilgrimage to Hinglaj in Balochistan at the Ram Bagh, todays Aram Bagh; It was home to Abdullah Shah and his brother Yousef Shah, both tenth century Sufis,  the twelfth century saint, Manghopir, and Morerio, the hero of Shah Abdul Latif’s Sur Ghato, Buried under the government houses on Bath Island are the remains of the sixteenth century capital of Raja Diborai. [2] Modern Karachi city’s hist...

Maurizio Boscheri at Mohatta Palace Museum, Karachi One of the functions of art is to stop time, create  a hiatus outside time to view and contemplate. Life is always on the move like time. One moment changes and modifies the previous. We depend on impressions memories to build our view of the world, nature, people we meet, events. Art stills those experiences not just momentarily but endlessly, as long as the artwork survives.  That is the true power of art.  Of all nature’s creations, wild life is the most elusive. Wild life photographers may spend years trying to capture an image. As man’s world intrudes further and further into nature, animals become more wary more threatened. We feel privileged to catch a glimpse of a fox, the paw prints of a snow leopard, a peacock in the distance. Maurizio Boscheri has presented us a rare treat to see the wild life of Pakistan in all its glorious detail. A homage to the exquisite beauty of nature. Working with photogr...

IMRAN MIR - THE SOUNDS OF SILENCE  ~Durriya Kazi I never made a painting as a work of art, it’s all research. ~ Pablo Picasso “I have never been and never will be a product of anything more than myself. My art is my own, why bother stating something about my art that isn’t true?” ~ Alexander Calder What you see is what you see. ~ Imran Mir Throughout his career as an artist Imran Mir has remained true to the notion of Art as investigation. He set out on this journey in 1973 while still an art student with his “First Paper” as he chose to call each body of work to the latest “Eleventh Paper” of 2013. Art investigation, unlike the scientific method, sets out without any attempt to visualize the final outcome of the work which may be unexpected and surprising even for the artist. He travels on a craft of intuition, or by initiating a system that will unfold according to its own internal logic. The process necessitates stringently avoiding pictorial referent...

WEAVING IDENTITIES - THE PAST OF OUR PRESENT By Durriya Kazi A Flower From Every Meadow curated by Dr. Nasreen Askari, brings together a mesmerizing collection of woven and embroidered clothing and fabrics from all over Pakistan. One of the most spiritually uplifting exhibitions, not least because of the ‘why now’ factor, it is a timely reminder of the meadow we now occupy that we have covered with plastic bags and rags of mass produced clothing. It asks the question “Is this our past or does it have a place in our future?” Dr Askari leads us to conclude the latter by inviting a select group of contemporary fashion designers to pay homage to the textiles with their own designs. Ethical Fashions originally the brainchild of Bibi Russell, has been adopted by many of Pakistan’s fashion designers in varying degrees. This ensures a continuity of traditional skills and creates a space for a Pakistani identity in the fashion industry. However as a cautionary thought, the con...