I’ve always known that community work is important to me. I think growing up with a dad like mine cultivated that in me. He’s an eye surgeon and his hobby is to host eye camps in the rural areas of Pakistan where people suffer from curable diseases like cataract and spend their whole lives blind. I watched him perform 200 cataract operations a day for nothing and then spend the weekend sleeping on the roofs of clay houses. He enjoyed every moment of it. I saw the looks on those faces when their bandages were unwrapped and they blinked in …
Category: My events and exhibitions
Blog posts regarding the events I manage to organize and collaborations I end up being part of.
Women’s day
Women’s day was quite a while back but I forgot to write a blog on a small exhibition that happened at Ascott Hotel Jeddah. It was called “Women Supporting Women” and it exhibited all kinds of arts and crafts. Here are the paintings chosen to be exhibited there: I absolutely loved the exhibition space. An artsy person could just walk in there and feel at home. Mental note made in case I ever need a space for an art event in Jeddah! Ayla and I even purchased this adorable pin …
The Untold Edition– Small Update
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 …
Artisans of Love
During my first ever tutorial, when art in Jeddah felt like a haze I was unable to penetrate, I talked to Jonathan about an art cafe I had discovered called Arbab al Heraf. It inspired a wonderful, artsy, curious discussion with wonderful, artsy, curious people and, you could say, it was the springboard for me exploring and understanding art in Jeddah. One of the things that emerged from that discussion was the idea that I could set up interviews with celebrated local artists. The stories that emerged would be a piece of narrative art in and of itself. Finally that …
The Other Story Project — Illustrated
The Other Story Project, mentioned in one of the previous blog posts, is a public art project I’ve been following for quite some time. I guess it is exactly my idea of using various forms of art and community involvement to build a cultural narrative. The Other Story Project often orchestrates a collaboration with artists to create a version called “The Other Story Project–Illustrated”. In January they reached out to me to join the team of artists illustrating one story each for the month of February. This is the story I was given (originally in Arabic, below is a close …