Largest painting by numbers attempt today

The Pakistani team will try to paint a 42,000 square foot canvas from 8 am to 5 pm on Friday. Each team will be provided a 16x11 canvas. The theme of the painting is ‘Colours of Pakistan’.

A 350-member Nigerian team that painted a 34,000 square foot canvas in 2010 currently holds the current record. The painting represents the map of Nigeria.

The Pakistani team will try to paint a 42,000 square foot canvas from 8 am to 5 pm on Friday. Each team will be provided a 16×11 canvas. The theme of the painting is ‘Colours of Pakistan’.

Mudassir Zia, founder of the Message Welfare Trust – an organisation that has been holding street art competitions for the last three years to discourage wall chalking – said that the idea had stemmed from a “desire to push boundaries”. Zia said that event was being organised on Pakistan Day so that youth could be encouraged to pay tribute to their homeland.

The 260 teams that will participate in the record attempt today were selected from among 500 teams who participated in the most recent street art competition.

The attempt will be filmed and then sent to Guinness World Records. “Usually judges from the Guinness World Records are flown in but we could not afford to,” said Zia. He thanked the provincial government for supporting the attempt by allowing them to use the stadium and providing flax sheets. “We hope to [set a record],” said Zia, adding, “This is just one of the things the youth of this country are capable of.”

Published in The Express Tribune, March 23^rd, 2012.