Some 650 student teams and scores of families painted murals on blank walls in Main Market, Mini Market, Firdous Market, Hussain Chowk, Centre Point, MM Alam Road, Chaudhry Zahoor Elahi Road and Hali Road.
Cultural identities, the environment, education, historical monuments, dengue prevention and blood donations were some of the popular themes tackled by the street artists. Some addressed more complex issues.
Three UET students painted a mural with seven characters, wearing black and white suits, each symbolising a fundamental right that every citizen should be entitled to exercise freely.
“There’s freedom of religion, speech, association ... those are a few,” said Samaaya Javed, an architecture student, as she labelled the figures painted on a wall along the footpath near the Cavalry Ground turning from Main Boulevard.
Many families took advantage of the free registration to participate in the event as a fun thing to do on a Sunday. Itral Gul, a former Kinnaird College student, came with her siblings.
“I received a text message from the Message Welfare Trust a few days ago. I had participated two years ago with my Kinnaird classmates and knew that it is great fun,” said Gul, as she and her brother painted a desert landscape of Balochistan. “I was good at painting landscapes and I decided to do something I was good at,” she said.
Most of the medical students painted images aimed at spreading awareness about dengue prevention or the importance of blood donations.
Seven King Edward students, who had earlier in the day helped students paint in Firdous Market, sketched two hands holding a halved heart. Dark shades were used to represent an electrocardiograph. “This signifies how a single blood donation can sometimes save a life,” said Mohammad Fahad, one of the artists.
Hira, a final year product design student at the National College of Arts, and her three friends painted basic cultural symbols of the four provinces: a camel representing Balochistan, an Ajrak pattern signifying Sindh, the Badshahi Masjid representing Punjab, and trucks representing Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa.
“Most students are sticking to one cultural theme for their work, but we decided to do something with more of a national vibe,” she said.
Hina, who runs an art institute in Gujranwala, came to Lahore with three students for the event. They painted the Government College University building and stencilled in images of Arfa Kareem, the IT prodigy whose death earlier this year left the nation saddened, at various ages across the mural.
“She was as bright a star as one can get in Pakistan’s schools and a powerful inspiration to many aspiring IT professionals,” said Hina. “I think she makes the mural contemporary and forceful.”
Two murals in particular were widely appreciated: a portrait of singer Abida Parveen painted by an NCA student, and a scene from the Shandoor Polo Festival by students of the Arts and Design Institute of Punjab University.
Mudassar Zia, the founder of Message Welfare Trust, the organisers of the event along with sponsor Master Paints, said 650 teams had registered for the even on Facebook. The organisers arranged transport for the registered participants across Gulberg. The participants included people from Gujrat, Gujranwala, Faisalabad and Sargodha, he said. The event started at 8am and ended at 5pm.
This was the third in a series of four street art events organised by the Message Welfare Trust and Master Paints. Murals were earlier painted on March 4 and March 11 at Egerton Road and Johar Town, respectively. On March 23, all registered participants will attempt a Guinness World Record for a 40,000 square feet painting at the Hockey Stadium. The name of the competition winners will also be announced then.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 19th, 2012.
COMMENTS (12)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
@saby: That's not true and you know it.
@Billoo Bhaya: If someone did something bad with you why are you blaming everyone??? Street Art competition is a well organized event and before painting any wall in Lahore Message welfare trust complete all kind of documentations,they allot walls to participants and they have all kind of permissions to paint that wall both from Government and people who's property they are using.Punjab gov is providing security and Master paint is sponsors the event and seriously Lahori people are very very supportive when it comes to Art :)
@Pawail Qaisar: No Sir. You threatened me by asking my address so that you could come and deface my private property. If you ever understood the concept of private property and its custodial benefits then you would not have made such an obnoxious statement. I am entitled to protect my property and any invasion of that allows me by law to take necessary steps. Rather than understand this concept you aggravated it by calling my citizenship in question. Try doing that in Dubai or for that matter in London, New York, Tokyo or Beijing. The police would have arrested these painters for defacing private property. Try the walls of Governor House and see what happens to you. Its exactly the people like you who take the law into their own hands because the pusillanimous state organs have all failed. That's why no one is investing in Pakistan. That's why there is mass unemployment. People like me who hire people to work are now under threat from people like you. My home is my castle. If that cannot be then why live in this failed state I ask myself.
@ Billoo Bhaya People like you are the reason this country is in the state it is in today. Threatening me on a public forum. No wonder our politicians do it with such pride, because our public also does the same.
its much better to paint a wall with some art rather than some silly ads by "hakeems". And Billoo Bhaya u are very much right they guys who want to paint walls with arts must take permission from the owners..
@Billoo Bhaya:
That's really bad if they've painted your boundary walls without your consent !
Recently someone painted walls of a fly-over at Shahra-e-Faisal in Karachi, I think painting, work of art, public messages or some famous quotations are much better than wall-chalking by quakes, political/sectarian parties etc.
Can't tell the difference between this and the political wall chalking we all love to hate to be honest. Painting murals to convey 'messages' .. drawing slogans to get your agenda across to public .. slapping faces of your 'heroes' on other people's walls .. all followed by a sense of achievement. This version of wall chalking is probably a bit more palatable as it's done with pretty colours.
I think Biloo Bhaya is correct somewhat, they shouldn't paint people's personal property at least. Otherwise, the idea is awesome, but don't paint personal walls.
@Pawail Qaisar: They painted my boundary walls without asking me. Now I will need quite a bit of money to clean them. How would you like if I came and sprayed all over your wall???????? May be you will come out of your egg shell. Tell me your address and I will send some one to take care of you. You will then find out who Billoo Bhaya is!!!!!!!!!
@Billoo Bhaya: Karachites are such philistines when it comes to art. At least allow the Lahoris to express themselves within rules. What's wrong?
@Billoo Bhaya
Maybe you need to take a look at what Message Welfare trust is doing, or what people like those at Zimmedar Shehri are doing. If you came out of your little bubble for one second in your life and appreciated the efforts of young individuals, instead of just cribbing about all that is wrong, then you'd realize that every little thing counts. They're not invading anyone's privacy by painting the walls. They are spreading messages in an artful way, beautifying the city in the process. Would you rather see wall chalking and slogans of hatred and sectarian violence? Would you rather see profanities inked on the walls? I think you would. Give me your address, I'll come with a spray paint and write 'Ghair Zimmedar Shehri' on yours.
This is invasion of privacy by painting people's boundary walls for whatever art. If they want to art then go to Fortress Stadium, Gaddafi stadium, walls of Governor House and the Civil Secretariat. I will see how they like it. Why people's homes??? I am sick of Lahorites bordering on the ridiculous. Nothing good has ever happened in this God forsaken city.