Once you arrive in Karachi,
the walls around you will be painted and chalked with graffiti and quotes in
the local language,KalaKari.The street
walls of Karachi serve as a sales and promotion channel, where you can
advertise whatever your heart desires. Unfortunately, amongst the unique wall
art, offensivecomments and political opinions about the Awami invitations to
soyems and dharnas taint the image of the city.
There has been a paradigm shift
as the students of the Indus Valley School of Arts and Architecture (IVS) along
with I AM KARACHI, started a movement to repaint and eradicate the derogatory
and unethical materialfrom the city walls. . I AM KARACHI is a citywide
campaign initiated by Munawar Ali Syed, with 15 artists and designers.They
worked diligently under the scorching sun, scraping scaly paint and kalakarioff the walls. IVS students are
working under the supervision of Adeela Suleman (Head of the Fine Arts Department).
Students have chosento capitalize ontheir creativity and have selected paintbrushes
as their weapon.
Apart from the university
students, school children have also volunteered to take part in this project.
The programtitled “Bachon se tabdili” havebeautified around 25 wallsin Shirin
Jinnah Colony and Lyari and helped in painting some walls at MT Khan Road.University
students have aimed to target about 1500 walls of the city. Their beautiful art
work can be viewed near Hassan Square, Civic Centre, Saddar,
Shahrah-e-Quaideen, MT Khan road, the Airport and Kala Pul.This campaign has successfully
decorated 1000 walls, with only 500 left!
(The campaign tries to utilize
all the possible forms of art, ranging from stencil work to the famous Truck Art
of Karachi.)
Another project named the
“Individual Artists Project” focuses mainly on revamping the walls on MT Khan Road
and the areas surrounding the Airport.
To our surprise, the students did not have to interact with any
extremists, and this project was embraced rather than being shunned. Occasionally,
people have yelled at the artists while othersgaze silently in awe. However, it
has been observed that people do appreciate them,since the walls have remainedin
a spotless and immaculate condition.
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