Written by: Jovita Alvares
Posted on: March 12, 2018 | 
| 中文
A closeup of 'Tracing Peripheries II' by Faisal Anwar
Alumnus of the National College of Arts, Faisal Anwar is currently displaying work from his first solo exhibition at Canvas Gallery, Karachi. Titled ‘Tracing Cities 1: Karachi,’ the show is packed with an intriguing collection of new media art. Anwar is an internationally acclaimed designer and artist, with degrees in Graphic Design and New Media Art. He has several awards, residencies, independent and collaborative works, as well as independent short films to his name. The artist was also a participant of the first ever Karachi Biennale, held in November, where he produced a magnificent installation in the Sadequain Gallery at Frere Hall. Pre-biennale, he visited various parts of Karachi, and through workshops gathered much of the data used in this show.
As the title of the show suggests, Anwar’s work looks at his journey in Karachi, specifically through the lens of a passerby. With technology and its never-ending advancement, it has become increasingly simple to view and share visual data, from one country to the other. Thus data easily crosses geographic borders, and no hassle is required of physically crossing into an area. Anwar’s interest in this, and the idea that with readily available technology, one can document their surroundings in real time with ease, is what unfolds throughout this oeuvre.
In the small room near the entrance of the gallery, two videos are displayed, titled ‘Saddar’ and ‘Orangi’ respectively. Each piece was a slow moving video of sites from the respective titles, and captured the essence of everyday life in the area. While in transit, we tend to mindlessly pass our surroundings, without any real acknowledgement of it. However, when the artist slows his journey down to such a great extent, it allows one to focus on everything happening, from locals also making the journey, to the substructures in the background. His manipulation of scale also determined the success of his work. Like the piece at the Sadequain Gallery, the large projection of ‘Orangi’ allowed the viewer to submerge themselves into the environment, and embrace its reality for a moment.
Furthering his research into the relationship of technology with the city, the artist created various prints, titled ‘Karachi Street study I-IV’ and ‘Tracing Peripheries I-II’. In the ‘Karachi Street Study’ series, each print held a sequence of a certain scenes from the streets of Karachi, such as a passing rickshaw and a traffic cop on duty. Though a stagnant medium, movement was created in each print, due to the rows of multiple imagery which showed the scene very gently transforming. This again allowed the audience to focus and appreciate the mundanity of Karachi street life.
In ‘Tracing Peripheries I-II’ Anwar looked at parts of Karachi like Burns Road, multiple times. Both prints of the series mimicked postal stamps, each artwork consisting of multiple stamps placed in grid formation. For the first piece, Anwar looked at outlined maps of the areas, while in the second print there were images of infrastructure from each area, on each stamp. Like in every other city, postal stamps hold iconic imagery specific to the region, and this link the artist draws between boundaries and stamps is perhaps a way of talking about their uniqueness in Karachi.
His other prints includes digital collages, where thin strips of visuals are put together to create a stunning abstract piece, a reminder of the influx of imagery we are exposed to everyday. The visual itself is reflective of screen static, which is something we often face due to faulty wiring or atmospheric disruptions, and the print cleverly tricks the eye into believing its moving, even though it really isn’t.
As a new media artist, Anwar’s medium of choice is computing. In ‘Chorangi,’ patterns were created on a projection, through a real-time interaction curated by 4 specific Twitter hashtags. In ‘ The City of Lights’, a site specific installation, the artist used algorithms to form light patterns similar to the colour bar one sees when a video can’t be played. Anwar’s uses this somewhat unpleasant pictorial and creates something visually appealing. The show was an eye-catching display, as it truly allowed one to immerse oneself into the depicted space, while also keeping the visual true to its surroundings.
The show goes on till 15th March, 2018.
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