Art and Ecological Activism: A Project of NuktaArt, One Mile Square - Mai Kolachi

Mai Kolachi and the environment around its expressway were the locale for One Mile Square (1mile²) Karachi, a project which is an initiative of Visiting Arts UK (www.square-mile.net) and is organized by NuktaArt magazine. 

NuktaArt worked with four local artists: Arif Mahmood, Nameera Ahmed, Adeel-uz-Zafar and Fraz Abdul Mateen, assisted by a young art critic, Shahana Rajani, mapping the biodiversity, cultural and aesthetic transformation of the area. The project began on December 1, 2009, and ended on January 30, 2010, with the culmination of a week-long exhibition of the artworks at the Ahmed Pervez Gallery, Arts Council Karachi. 

NuktaArt’s main aim was to engage the artists with issues that pertain to the environmental context within the coastal belt of Karachi in and around Mai Kolachi. Engagement with the community was an essential part of the project to promote social and environmental activism. The building of the Mai Kolachi Expressway, on land reclaimed from a lagoon, has led to the destruction of most of the mangroves in this area and has disturbed the eco-system of Karachi’s coastal stretch. Facilitated by NuktaArt the artists and the art critic were linked with other experts in the field: Tahir Qureshi (IUCN) led a visit to the mangroves in the Indus Delta, and Ronald D’Souza (Shehri); Najma Sadeque (Shirkatgah) and Arif Hasan (Urban Resource Centre) held workshops and made presentations. An intense engagement with the issues made the group more aware of its social responsibility. The project helped the artists to realise the problems of urban and environmental degradation, and the week-long exhibition of their works helped to create awareness, particularly in students, who visited it in large numbers. Workshops for art students studying in different colleges in the city as well as in the Government Girls’ School, Intelligence located in Sultanabad in the Mai Kolachi area were also part of the project. 

The inauguration of the artists’ works was preceded by a panel discussion between the artists, the art critic, mangrove expert Tahir Qureshi and activist Ronald D’Souza. This was to explore the role of art in creating change towards environmental sustainability. 

The four artists successfully demonstrated through the show that art can create awareness and motivate the community by becoming a part of social and artistic activism. 

Arif Mahmood’s installation was made up of several black and white images. He said that he tried to show both the ecological and human struggle in and around the Mai Kolachi expressway. The reclamation of land destroyed the mangroves in this region, which for long had been the breeding and feeding ground of many species and could serve as a protection against heavy sea storms. However, the local inhabitants are oblivious to this imbalance caused by land reclamation as they are locked in their own struggle for existence. His visuals show emptiness and convey the underlying fight for survival by the land and the human beings alike.  

Nameera Ahmed’s video work revolved around three themes: Destruction, Desolation and Activism.  She explored repetitive and disturbing motor and car engine sounds accompanied by videos of the mangrove forests, thus reminding the viewer of the two parallel worlds of development and destruction that move together. In Desolation she used an artificially created sound-scape constructed with water sounds, microwave bells and the rustling of plastic bags, which accompany the parched and barren landscape strewn with seashells…dreaming of water. Activism, was part of a short documentary piece with some of Karachi’s activists who talked about the depletion of the mangrove forests and their effect on the environment of Karachi.

Adeel-uz-Zafar re-used one of his past works - dismantling and then reconstructing its pieces to form a map of the designated one square mile of Mai Kolachi. This rearrangement commented on the dynamics of displacement which has been experienced by the local inhabitants. Over the surface of his mural made up of hundreds of small square tiles, he juxtaposed other images with his signature scratch technique and engraved it to create a layered symbolic iconography.

Fraz abdul Mateen said in his statement about his ‘razor’ installation that “I have tried to convey how effortless and swift the whole process of removing nature to replace it with man-made structures has become. It also speaks of how we have become oblivious to the extent of damage this has done to the environment.” Fraz’s second installation ‘Start a New Game’ was about his close interaction with the people affected by the Boulton Market bomb blast, and he said he was impacted by the alarming condition of the city where sudden death of not only human lives, but also of our heritage and history is possible at anytime. “To me the situation has similarities with the digital game Minesweeper, which I have referenced in this interactive work,” he said.