Artist’s work to go on display at the Koel Gallery from Thursday.
KARACHI:
In spellbound silence, gamers and non-gamers listened as artist Sabina Zeba Haque explained how she had combined “video-game imagery, Indo-Persian miniature patterns and western oil paintings” to “express a life lived between cultures” at a talk held at T2F.
Her work, which constitutes more than 30 paintings that took shape over the course of two years, transforms the maps of Karachi used in a video game, Modern Warfare, into captivating allegorical maps which attempt to sketch a truer depiction of “the social and cultural landscape of Karachi”.
Haque, who was born in the United States but raised in Karachi, explained what went on behind the scenes of her collection. “I appropriated maps of the city from google maps and from the game, Modern Warfare, and printed them using archival links. I then transformed them into these new places which are organic and beautiful,” she said. “They turned into the places I could see myself in. With every map, I have tried to build a new reality.”
Haque, who moved to the States 18 years ago, explained how her work is an expression of her attempt to settle in two worlds. “We moved houses in America 14 times, and in every home, I would lay out my Pakistani carpet and wonder for a moment about where I belong. My maps are essentially about me trying to find my place in the world.”
From art to politics
Haque lamented that the media in Pakistan and United States has the power to define people’s perceptions of each other. “We need to question the world that the media creates for us. We need to create our own maps.”
“Yes, even the size of Europe is exaggerated,” one audience member interjected, evoking muffled giggles from the audience.
She went on to explain how people the misperceptions on both sides were due to ignorance. “Most people in the States know about the 20 kids shot in New York but not about those dying every day from the drone attacks in Pakistan,” she explained. “We cannot demonize any side. But we need to raise awareness so that people know that Karachi and rest of Pakistan are not only defined by violence as the gaming industry abroad is depicting them as.”
Haque elaborated that as an artist, she wanted to create a virtual space to subvert this negativity. “I wanted to show the beauty I experienced in this city as a child growing up in Pakistan.”
An audience member, Shahram, explained the dangerous influence that the gaming world had on defining the perceptions of young gamers towards people and countries. “I shudder to think of a child anywhere in the world who opens up his Christmas present and finds ‘Modern Warfare: Call of Duty’. When he starts to play, he realises that the first mission is to blow up Karachi Port Trust. The game, which is very graphic, then requires him to make his way through Lyari while shooting people on the way. What kind of a world are we creating?”
Haque’s work, which is an intriguing take on diluting the violence portrayed in war games, will be on display at Koel Gallery from March 14.
Published in The Express Tribune, March 10th, 2013.
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I also am concerned about the negative aspects of those games. Maybe she can help design virtual environments that people can visit day-to-day that depict harmonious living and areas for meditation.... I know I would visit!
As a videogamer, I have to say AWESOME!
Her concerns are true and valid but the paintings, in the picture above, appear to be rather uninspiring.