Artists portray Lahore’s smog, climate change

Artists expressed their concerns over the impact of climate change on Lahore in the weekly documentary series ‘Voices from the Roof of the World’ on Express TV on Sunday.

They pointed out that the biggest challenge Lahore is facing is smog, posing a risk to the city’s future.

“Smog brings a feeling of suffocation and your surroundings become blurred. Climate change is the major issue of current times,” said Abida Dahri, a visual artist. “Artists talk about issues which people usually don’t think about.”

Another artist, Ali Baba, was of the view that what attracted him most to Lahore was the fog. “But when it changes to smog it may be visually appealing but it eats you away.”

The artists in an exhibition tried to draw attention of the visitors to the real issue the city has been facing for years.

Sharing his thought, Baba said that his work was in process. “I am sculpting a body constructed through body casting. There are negative and positive spaces in a human body,” he said. “I am filling up the negative spaces to generate a feeling of being trapped. It is trapped but it is looking up, symbolising hope. We will enclose it into an acrylic box and sand it to make it scratchy. Scratches produce a blur effect. The figure will be half embedded to make it appear blur. Some portion will be shown clearly. It is trapped in thick air through which I want to provoke a feeling of suffocation through this piece.”

Umair Ghani, photographer and writer, said the fog descends from the sky and joins the smoke. “They embrace polluted rivers, stinking garbage dumps and chimneys oozing smoke of factories. They dance on the beat of coughing, huffing, reeling chests. The city on ventilator-induced sleep sways in ecstasy upon symphony of death.”

Read ‘Effective government regulations can solve smog problem’

National College of Arts Lahore Principal Dr Murtaza Jafri said while commenting on the exhibition, “I think this show is a great effort on the part of the artists. As they say an image is worth a thousand words.

“Imagine being immersed in water. How will you breathe? No matter how high you try lifting your feet to come out of water to breathe. The smog is even scarier. Because we are engulfed by it and it is spreading really fast. It permanently damages lungs,” he said.

Visual artist Kiran Saleem said, “I seriously think that the future is not promising because we see things on the macro level. Instead of preserving and utilising our natural resources in a better way, they are being used in a destructive manner.”

She added, “On a large scale, things are going in the wrong direction. It is a little difficult to stop and bring them in the right direction. I think the future is in danger.”

Artist and curator Irfan Gul Dahri was of the view that the show was just a beginning. “We think that this show can become people’s voice. Ultimately this can reach the policymakers or the people in authority to step up the efforts to resolve or at least control the issue. This issue of air pollution must reach the policymakers.”

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2022.