One of the outcomes I had in mind for my MA project was a public art project that allows weaving together the narrative of a city full of people. I researched a bunch of projects and finally settled on my own idea inspired by little bits of all of them. I call this project ‘The Untold Edition”.
The Untold Edition is underway for the month of July. I will be flying to Karachi to conduct it. Prior to that, I will be in Jeddah so a bunch of planning needs to be accomplished before I finally get there.
So what IS The Untold Edition all about?
My idea so far is to collaborate with IVS, Karachi’s best art college, in order to gather a group of lovers of all forms of art. Each participant will be asked to use an A4 size paper to anonymously write down their most potent memory of their life in Karachi. The participants will then be divided randomly into groups and the papers shuffled and redistributed to each group. Each group will pick one story to illustrate.
Meanwhile, we will also put out a call for artists and ask artists of all kinds (outsiders, emerging artists, established artists) who want to contribute to create art that represents their most potent memory of life in Karachi. Together these pieces will be exhibited at a gallery in Karachi.
On the day of the exhibition I want to paint a wall or panel chalkboard black, and write a small prompt relating to Karachi (yet to be decided), followed by blanks which the rest of the visitors will be welcome to fill out with words or pictures.
So far, I am assembling a team of artists to lead the project and am in conversation with several galleries to book a space.
Once that is done, the next steps are to reach out to some sponsors to help arrange the exhibition. I also need to complete a brief proposal and send it to the registrar at IVS to confirm their participation.
Phew. I hope this all works out!