Frere Hall 2015
On April 11th, the first Numaish Karachi, public art intervention took place in the Frere Hall Gardens. The diverse range of installations, with their innovative nature brought light and life to this historic structure. Frequent visitors to the gardens were amazed to see the place transformed with an amalgamation of several art and technological projects. Among these were the Wave Pendulum, Newton's Cradle, Carrom Board and Bijli ka Talaab.
Photography by Humayun Memon
Photography by Humayun Memon
Bijli Ka Talaab
Light Installation
Materials; Blue LED lights, lotus bulbs
Dimensions: 2-4 feet high
This light installation is inspired by the lotuses that grow on the way to Keenjhar Lake from where Karachi gets its water supply. It was here that a prince of Sindh fell in love with a fisherwoman called Noori in what became a famous romantic tale immortalized by Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai. This site-specific intervention uses the pond or talaab at Frere Hall gardens
Carrom Board
Artist: Aamir Habib
Materials: 12mm glass, 4mm acrylic, sheesham wood, metal stand, LED lights
Size: 5×5 feet, height 30 inches
Carrom is a popular stike-and-pocket wooden board game indigenous to South Asia. Usually four players (sometimes in pairs) compete with each other. It resembles billiards and in Karachi you will find people playing its daboo variation in small clubs where tournaments are regularly held. This innovative hexagonal version has been constructed in glass with LED lights so that up to six people can play at night.
Photography Humayun Memon
Sandbag Labyrinth
Interactive installation
Artist: Seema Nusrat
Materials: Sand, jute bags
This labyrinth evokes the security barricades that have increasingly become a fixture in Karachi’s landscape. This colourful installation subverts their function to protect and cordon off by instead inviting people in to engage with the space in a playful activity.Photos: Humayun Memon
Photography by Humayun Memon
Kutubkhana
Open-air library
Architects: Khadija-tul-Kubra & Ilma Wasty
Material: Wood, metal, chiks (reed blinds)
Size: 16×22 feet
The Kutubkhana (library), an octagonal structure with inbuilt seating and book shelves, is designed to function as a pavilion. The skeletal structure made of scaffolding, chiks and stepped seating, is designed to be a modular construction that can be easily dismantled. The indigenous lightweight reed chiks were specifically chosen as they not only give definition to the Kutubkhana’s form but also provide a partial enclosure.
Photography by Humayun Memon
Over-view Effect
Light installation
Artist: Yasir Husain
Material: Solar panels, barbed wire, LED lights
Of the 500 astronauts who have spent time in space, watching the earth endlessly as their space station or shuttle circles over the earth, many have experienced what is known as the Overview Effect. In this project we use clean energy from the sun to dispel violence in Karachi. When lit, the LED lights—powered by solar panels and attached to spirals of razor barbed wire—make the razor wire disappear, leaving just the light illuminating the public space. More than a worldview, this is an overview of life in Karachi.
A trail of light from the solar panels reaches and lights up the razor barbed wire which spans Frere Hall’s profile.
Photography by Mahim Maher
Saanp Seeri
Team: Sana Gondal, Saadia Pathan, Zahra Currimbhoy, Zoha Jabbar, Talha Kehar
Size: 10×10 feet, life-size
Snakes and Ladders is an ancient sub-continental board game played between two or more players on a game board with numbered squares on a grid. This life-sized intervention seeks to create a sense of family and community, by inviting people to come together to play. The goal is not to win, but rather, not to lose.
Photography by Humayun Memon
Sand Pendulum
Team: Nadeem Afzal, Syed Fakhruddin
Size: Height: 26 inches, 18x18 frame, boric powder, pendulum dia: 2 inches, chrome chain: 2 feet.
This science installation is made of a pointed weight at the end of a wire that is suspended over a tray of boric powder. The all-metal pendulum converts kinetic energy into potential energy. The extremely fine powder provides minimal friction, allowing the pendulum to swing for extended periods of time. As the pendulum swings it gently "writes" ever-changing geometic patterns in the sand. The patterns get bigger then smaller then bigger again as the arc of the pendulum also changes.