Showing posts with label Issue #21. Show all posts


Text: Danish Azar Zuby

About a hundred years ago, there was a Parsi gentleman by the name of Jamshed Nusserwanjee Mehta, a respectable citizen of Karachi who became the first elected Mayor of Karachi. He is also known as the ‘Maker of Modern Karachi’. Those times are synonymous with his name and generally referred to as the Nusserwanjee era, as it was in those times that the roads of Karachi were actually washed every morning and it was called the cleanest city of south Asia. Those were the happy and peaceful times.

Today, in November 2012 we mourn the passing away of another great Parsi citizen of Karachi, who besides many titles that are showered on him, is also being addressed as ‘The conscience of the Nation’. Earlier this year, on the 20th of March SHEHRI (Citizens for Better Environment) an NGO held an evening function to celebrate the illustrious life of Cowasjee and confer upon him the award of ‘Citizen Emeritus’ for his extraordinary services and contributions to Karachi.



Text: Salwat Ali.
Photography: Courtesy various galleries/artists

 Peppered with spurts of creative zest and technical flair, Visual Arts 2012 remained buoyant in a social and political environment that continued to plunge ever deeper into turmoil.  Particularly noticeable were refreshing perspectives in the works of young painters on topics questioning the space between art and life in the often violent and chaotic reality they are faced with every day. Growing in the age of Breaking News, power outages and shutter down calls the current generation of artists critique disorder not with alarm and despair but with a cool rationale often tweaked with biting humor. Hardy and resilient they have the aplomb and ingenuity to explore new directions to address their concerns.

In an art climate increasingly dominated by mixed and multimedia young artists as committed practitioners of representational painting are few and far between. The Canvas show, (shown in last week of Dec2011, but reviewed in Jan2012) Condolence Theatre, by Muhammed Ali and Altars, by Komail Aijazuddin centering on the painterly exercise was a pleasant reminder of the grandeur and instant impact that can be achieved through this traditional genre.  Religo - cultural storytelling is a relatively unexplored field here and in this regard the two artist’s deliberate engagement with their chosen subjects was the other striking feature of the show.   

Text: Mariam Qureshi

Photography: Courtesy the author and Dirk

Dhaka is a city of paradoxes; on one side we look down the 18 story of Westin Dhaka with all the glitz of an international five star hotel on to the dirtiest slums of the city. On the other hand is a tuk tuk driven by men all around the city whose stamina can match a sprinter performing in the Olympics and on the other hand cars lined up at a traffic signal for no less then forty five minutes. To narrate another contradiction would be that a real string of pearl will cost you as less as 300 Bangladeshi Takkas which would amount to around four hundred Rupees where as a bottle of water can cost you up to 500 BDT. It is a characteristic city with a flavor of its own.  Essentially another paradox of the city; it is extremely poverty stricken yet art and culture thrives in abundance.



Text:Maria Aslam
Photography:Marium & Maria Aslam

Seems like yesterday when the same scribe had reviewed S Abdulla in Lahore, the dynamic play of construction beams and exposed framework had set the setting of the new warehouse design entity in the design world. Then it was just a beginning, an exploration that was picked up by many architects a new aspect for less is more? Today we go a step further with the Builders Mall perched almost at the outskirts of Rawalpindi - Islamabad, an area where construction is in full swing whether commercial or residential. In a year’s time the building which stands aloof in the typical usual constructed environ of the capital city might just be engulfed by its neighbors.

Set back from the road and sitting royally in a slender mass enveloped in fair-faced concrete that captures ones eye because of the elevation the exterior belies the interior completely. As one walks over its entrance portal and enters its atrium space a new world of interiors and products unfolds. The central natural lit space bewilders as a playful world suddenly surprise you. I literally did a twirl just to get an expanse of the space from down to the top. I also noticed the traffic and the reactions of the people visiting the Mall then, it is obvious that one needs to spend hours to get the maximum out of the space whether in the design context or the plethora of products that it houses.

   
Copyright © 2012 ADA: Architecture Design Art.