Exhibition: 5 artists get ‘amnesia’, tackle the loss of cultural memory

Remnants of an overlooked Pakistani culture rejuvenated by five young artists.

KARACHI:

Somewhere between intricately decorated buses running cars off the road and the antiquated streets of Saddar glimmer the remnants of an overlooked Pakistani culture — one that has been rejuvenated by five young artists in a show curated by Aasim Akhtar at Art Chowk gallery.

The artists are National College of Arts, Rawalpindi, graduates Ayesha Kamal and Abeerah Zahid,  Rabeya Jalil who is currently on a Fulbright Scholarship at Columbia University, Sana Ali from the Rhode Island School of Design and Zara Mehmood, a teacher at American University in Dubai.

“The show studies the loss of cultural memory in Pakistan today,” they said in a press statement. “By refusing to critically examine our past we are in a state of denial, or worse oblivion.”

“Whether calculated or inadvertent, this loss of memory has led to a lack of understanding of who we are as a nation.”

The show, titled ‘Amnesia: The Loss of Cultural Memory’, was launched on March 9, and the artwork will be on display every day from 11 am to 7 pm till March 22, excluding Sundays.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 17^th, 2011.