Even in today’s modern and educated world, which is globally connected by virtue of Information Technology, there are almost 120 million children who live on the streets; Asia shares 30 million of them. These children are denied their basic rights to shelter, education and health and are often exposed to criminal abuse. Same is the case with Pakistan where a large number of adolescents are the victim of every kind of exploitation, wandering around in the streets.

The multi-genre exhibition at the Gallery 39-K, Lahore displayed images of almost seven street photographers from Neelam and Shah Rasool Colonies of Karachi, together with works of professional artists and a special performance by a Syrian-German performer. It was a different yet an absorbing show with a certain cause, for establishing dialogue and background for analysing the splintered social fabric of our society.

The title of the show was intentionally reversed from the original phrase: Iss Parcham Ke Saye Taley (Together underneath the national flag) to “Iss Saye Ke Parcham Taley” (Underneath the shadow of the national flag) to add satirical feel created by the dichotomy of the behaviours of masses and the so-called national-level organisations of human and children’s rights. Abdullah Qureshi and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto curated this show with a purpose to engage the viewers in a dialogue and discussion rather than visiting as mere onlookers.

The multi-genre exhibition combines the work of street artists with established painters

Exhibited in this show were a few paintings as well. Mohan Das who started his career as a billboard, rickshaw and truck painter in Hyderabad, came up with his three acrylic works showcasing patterns of his bitter past. Ahmed Ali Manganhar, a qualified painter from the National College of Arts (NCA), displayed his collage works made up of film posters. As an ambitious observer of the movie posters and billboards, Manganhar could never erase the ascendancy of the cinema-poster art from his visual memory, even after studying at the NCA. This art form has always remained a superior commodity in his understanding, which further compelled him to study this diminishing art form and creating an abstract dialect for it in this show, through his collage work.

Bhutto’s idea of giving street children a chance to click, actually clicked. These street photographers captured their own and unique visual interests; they first displayed their art at the community centre where they used to come for studies and later in other areas of Karachi.  

As this exhibition was associated with the 6th International THAAP Conference 2016, some foreign artists also performed on this occasion. Rabi Georges, a Syrian-German artist presented, or tried to present as the reality was too harsh to depict, the current chaotic situation of Syria. Therefore, he depended heavily on symbolic representation where the artist used four vessels denoting the four years of war, filled with materials of black and red colours to signify cremated and massacred humanity, whereas he used water and sand to exemplify ‘migration’ and ‘destruction’ subsequently.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, November 29th, 2015