Expression and explosion: Italian-German artist finds hearts everywhere he goes in Karachi
Pezzotta, Peter and Jaffarani among three artists displaying their artwork at IVS.
Marco Pezzotta’s mirrors called ‘Less than three’
As a first-time visitor to Karachi, Italian-German artist Marco Pezzotta found hearts everywhere he went in the city.
“I was roaming around the city and I found this form that was repeating itself a lot,” he said. “It was the heart shape.” Pezzotta admitted he saw it being used a lot in the rickshaw decorations. “You see [the shape] here more than you see in Europe,” he added.
Apart from Pezzotta, Holland-based artist Eric Peter and Karachi-based artist Shaheen Jaffrani have different perspectives to offer when it comes to Karachi. The young artists stayed together for five weeks as part of a residency organised by the Vasl Artists’ Collective.
The works that were the outcome of the programme are on display at the Indus Valley School Gallery. The exhibition titled ‘Between Thinking, Seeing, Saying and Nothing’ will run till April 6.
The Chattai installation
For Pezzotta, working with different materials and objects was fascinating. One of his most intriguing works was the mixed media installation in which he placed different objects on a chattai carpet. According to him, he experimented with objects and material.
“I was thinking about producing a kind of a playground,” he said, adding that he had no strict plans when he came to Karachi. “I was just collecting materials and experiencing the city. Then I thought of making this sort of an archaeological site to put objects together to bring about a narrative.”
Another interesting aspect of his installation was the Kinder Eggs candy wrapper. One half of the egg showed blue while the other had more of pink to offer. According to the artist, this was an expression of his discomfort with how, all over the world, objects are divided into categories based on gender.
Urban decay
The theme of Jaffrani’s body of work revolves around the decay of society. One of her works is a video clip that shows how a man litters the exact same spot where it says ‘safaai ka khaas khayal rakhain’ [Take special consideration of cleanliness].
“My work is greatly inspired by Karachi and the decay that surrounds us,” she said. “And this makes me wonder why people won’t do anything about it when this decay is so obvious.”
Two of her works, titled ‘Let’s Recycle Your Waste’ I and II, showed filthy toilet paper and towel. She explained how she laid out a canvas on the road for a month, with cars passing over it and people spitting on it. These pieces were a comment on how people complain about the lack of hygiene in the city, yet they are themselves responsible for it in a subconscious way.
“If you go around Karachi, you see the same kind of a surface everywhere,” she said. “Be it Gulshan-e-Iqbal or Defence, everywhere it’s the same kind of roads with the same kind of marks. The people who want to get away with it are the ones causing this decay. Then we have no right to complain why Karachi is so dirty.”
Experimentation
With the most number of works, Peter seemed to have been really fascinated by the variety he found in Karachi in terms of art materials and technique. “Where I come from, it’s very hard to work with artisans and craftsmen,” he said, adding that it is expensive and craftsmen need to be contacted through proper agencies in Holland. “I found it very interesting to work with people here. Connecting with them seemed much easier.”
In one of his glass sculptures titled ‘Generation in Waiting’, Peter depicted a snake forming a circle and a large foot in its centre. “This is the vicious circle of the older generation, which was in power,” he said. “There is a new generation, like me and my friends, that wants a positive world.” According to him, the snake represents the older generation that was responsible for wars and financial crises while the foot is a symbol for the new generation - the foot that will crush the snake.
The art writer
Besides the three, another artist Fazal Rizvi stayed with them and produced a publication on the artists’ experiences during the residency. His publication, titled ‘Verba volant, scripta manent’ — a Latin proverb meaning ‘spoken words fly away, written words remain’ — was also on view at the gallery. It comprises short narratives, dialogue, emails and letters.
“Marco and Eric were really taken aback by the materials they found here,” he said. “As a result, as you can see, there is explosion of technique and material.”
Published in The Express Tribune, April 4th, 2015.
“I was roaming around the city and I found this form that was repeating itself a lot,” he said. “It was the heart shape.” Pezzotta admitted he saw it being used a lot in the rickshaw decorations. “You see [the shape] here more than you see in Europe,” he added.
Apart from Pezzotta, Holland-based artist Eric Peter and Karachi-based artist Shaheen Jaffrani have different perspectives to offer when it comes to Karachi. The young artists stayed together for five weeks as part of a residency organised by the Vasl Artists’ Collective.
The works that were the outcome of the programme are on display at the Indus Valley School Gallery. The exhibition titled ‘Between Thinking, Seeing, Saying and Nothing’ will run till April 6.
The Chattai installation
For Pezzotta, working with different materials and objects was fascinating. One of his most intriguing works was the mixed media installation in which he placed different objects on a chattai carpet. According to him, he experimented with objects and material.
“I was thinking about producing a kind of a playground,” he said, adding that he had no strict plans when he came to Karachi. “I was just collecting materials and experiencing the city. Then I thought of making this sort of an archaeological site to put objects together to bring about a narrative.”
Another interesting aspect of his installation was the Kinder Eggs candy wrapper. One half of the egg showed blue while the other had more of pink to offer. According to the artist, this was an expression of his discomfort with how, all over the world, objects are divided into categories based on gender.
Urban decay
The theme of Jaffrani’s body of work revolves around the decay of society. One of her works is a video clip that shows how a man litters the exact same spot where it says ‘safaai ka khaas khayal rakhain’ [Take special consideration of cleanliness].
“My work is greatly inspired by Karachi and the decay that surrounds us,” she said. “And this makes me wonder why people won’t do anything about it when this decay is so obvious.”
Two of her works, titled ‘Let’s Recycle Your Waste’ I and II, showed filthy toilet paper and towel. She explained how she laid out a canvas on the road for a month, with cars passing over it and people spitting on it. These pieces were a comment on how people complain about the lack of hygiene in the city, yet they are themselves responsible for it in a subconscious way.
“If you go around Karachi, you see the same kind of a surface everywhere,” she said. “Be it Gulshan-e-Iqbal or Defence, everywhere it’s the same kind of roads with the same kind of marks. The people who want to get away with it are the ones causing this decay. Then we have no right to complain why Karachi is so dirty.”
Experimentation
With the most number of works, Peter seemed to have been really fascinated by the variety he found in Karachi in terms of art materials and technique. “Where I come from, it’s very hard to work with artisans and craftsmen,” he said, adding that it is expensive and craftsmen need to be contacted through proper agencies in Holland. “I found it very interesting to work with people here. Connecting with them seemed much easier.”
In one of his glass sculptures titled ‘Generation in Waiting’, Peter depicted a snake forming a circle and a large foot in its centre. “This is the vicious circle of the older generation, which was in power,” he said. “There is a new generation, like me and my friends, that wants a positive world.” According to him, the snake represents the older generation that was responsible for wars and financial crises while the foot is a symbol for the new generation - the foot that will crush the snake.
The art writer
Besides the three, another artist Fazal Rizvi stayed with them and produced a publication on the artists’ experiences during the residency. His publication, titled ‘Verba volant, scripta manent’ — a Latin proverb meaning ‘spoken words fly away, written words remain’ — was also on view at the gallery. It comprises short narratives, dialogue, emails and letters.
“Marco and Eric were really taken aback by the materials they found here,” he said. “As a result, as you can see, there is explosion of technique and material.”
Published in The Express Tribune, April 4th, 2015.