I.I. Chundrighar ki Numaish
. project 09
date. 2021
city. Karachi
medium. Photography, fiction writing and book
This book is a reimagined art catalogue which is a series of fictional art pieces and accompanying artist’s statements. The concept of these fictional artworks stemmed from our own curiosities as we scoured I.I. Chundrighar Road for odd places, unusual visual, unexpected artforms which would seem very negligible or even ugly to a random passerby.
An Artist’s gaze is a powerful tool. When you walk on a Karachi street which is either filled with tension or mundane normality and then you decide to take pictures of a pole whose bunch of wires seem aesthetic to you, people around will look at you weirdly. Sometimes people will approach you too and inquire what you are doing there. They will soften up a little when they hear you are an artist and inquire about your project, assume you are a student and occasionally share their own stories as an act of generosity. Other times, you come face to face with a bully who will try to intimidate you, ask you why you are taking pictures, restrict your access to an otherwise public space, but in those times you stand your ground and you will see that those bullies are just little scaredy cats inside. All of this is part of your adventures. Our project I.I. Chundrigar Rd. ki Numaish went through several developing stages but the baseline was always to create a
form of a subjective map of the space we chose. The area that we ended up selecting was I.I. Chundrigar Road which stretches from Shaheen Complex to Tower. It was a very unique area for us to explore with the eyes of two wanderers because the street is primarily a commercial hub and is filled with people who know exactly where they have to go. Among these people two of us stood out as we roamed aimlessly and photographed things which others passed by without a second glance. Numaish at I.I. Chundrigar ki Numaish is a conception of our own gazes as we roamed around I.I. Chundrigar Road and photographed scenes which many gazed over. We thought like two artists who made up stories within the ordinary but fascinating objects and scenes we came across. Numaish at I.I. Chundrigar is an expression of that sentiment where we have conceptualized I.I. Chundrigar Road as an art gallery, with many paintings and installations in its premises. For each of these “artworks” we have fictionalized an artist's statement under pseudonyms and come up with a narrative around them. Numaish at I.I. Chundrigar serves as a sort of scavenger hunt or a tourist guide for curious explorers like us who can visit the place and see it through our eyes.