DUCKS SHOPPING FOR BREAD

چشم نم ، جان شوریدہ کافی نہیں   تہمت عشق پوشیدہ کافی نہیں  آج بازار میں پابجولاں  چلو  Chashm-e-nam, jaan-e-shoreeda kafi nahin teary eyes and a restless soul are not enough Tohmat-e-ishq-posheeda kafi nahin being charged for nurturing concealed love is not enough aaj bazaar main pa-bajolan chalo let us walk in the bazaar in shackles! How strange do these revolutionary words by renowned Pakistani poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz sound in a new world where revolution is a quiet process and walking to the bazaar is considered profane I've inserted the above two images because they contain the  All-Seeing-Eye  and references to the  New World Order . These are works I made in 2015/2016. To many, today's Covid-19 situation signals the beginning of the End of Times, of which Armageddon is considered to be a symbol, as well as the appearance of دجال  Dajjal /The Antichrist . The All-Seeing- Eye also represents the existe...

And here I present to you information from down memory lane: A collection of short stories I  wrote  in response to the mixed-media artworks of artist Numair A. Abbasi, first published in the catalogue of    [it takes] All kinds of kinds  for the artist’s solo show at Sanat Gallery, Karach i, in October 2015 Sell it till your last days Sell it till your last days He is a balloon seller. He peddles balloons on his unicycle, straining to steady himself on the childhood device that he still puts to use. He feels his newly-acquired skill of absolute balance befits him; balance, not only of his body, with his perfect posture and uniform distribution of weight on both sides, but balance also of two very incongruent tasks: the quick-witted promotion of his colourful ware, while straining his eyes and body on a single wheel. Cars whizz past, the roads are rutted and people ogle at him as he passes by. But he knows he will not give up till he ...

Wash Your Hands: hand-cut paper piece in progress Wash Your Hands: hand-cut paper final A4 piece Hey there!                                              Paper cutting is all I can think of. I lucked out with the calligraphy paper! It’s so smooth. Just wish it's thickness allowed for more durability. It’s still better than other regular paper, though. I can’t seem to read much; at least anything related to art. I can read fiction that consists of no grief, depression or distressing themes. I can create art. When I’m creating art, I feel a sense of calm. It’s like an escape. But  When I think of writing anything serious, I feel a sense of drea d . As if anything scholarly that requires my brain to think of serious things (like doing proper research, investigating a certain area and writing a report on it) are the most terrifying t...

My studio space at the Sir John Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design in Aldgate, London. Before I left for Pakistan amidst the Corona virus crisis, I had been exploring laser cutting at The Cass . It had been an interesting technical and physical endeavour for me to prepare and procure different kinds of paper for this purpose, learning from Joel how to make an Adobe Illustrator file out of the linear pen illustrations that I had drawn, and ensuring that the illustrations were made in a way that would be conducive to this process. Unfortunately, the first time I tried this, I put in many hours to get the prerequisites in place for my slot in the laser cutting room, but failed after an entire day of hard work because the laser cutting machine did not recognise the vectorised drawing. Finally, with Joel's help, I managed the correct kind of digital file-making, and was able to print a particular illustration on a number of different materials (foam board, wrappi...