Look at the city from here
This project was my first as a curator and experience designer. The client was The School of Writing (TSW) who wanted to showcase the work of their students from a photo journalism module. The students were from diverse impoverished communities in Karachi and were tasked with compiling a photo essay on the problems in and around their communities. We were tasked with setting up 6 exhibitions for the local communities and 1 Mega Exhibition to be held at the Karachi Arts Council. Given the context we took the decision to keep the exhibition in Urdu and English so the content was accessible to all kinds of visitors.
Thematic Categorization
As we went through the content we highlighted major themes that came across in the stories. For the local exhibitions we had more themes which would be wide and specific, however for the mega exhibition we highlight 7 major themes and chose to categorize work into one or more if there were thematic overlaps. This informed the layout of the space.
| Theme/Location | Life by the Sea | Drugs & Addiction | Civic Amenities | Identity | Abuse of Power & Mafia | Community & Public Space | Gender |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chakiwara | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | - | - | - |
| Ibrahim Hyderi | 1 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Mauripur | 8 | - | 6 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Nayabad | 1 | - | - | 1 | 1 | - | - |
| Pehelwan Goth | 1 | - | 2 | - | 3 | 4 | - |
| Saeedabad | 1 | - | 2 | - | - | 6 | 3 |
| Total | 13 | 4 | 13 | 7 | 6 | 12 | 6 |
Local Exhibitions
Our focus for these exhibitions was to draw out the local residents and encourage a culture of engaging with photography and storytelling. As these six neighbourhoods did not have traditional spaces for residents to come into contact with art, we wanted to find local equivalents. So we selected sites based on accessibility, activation in community, and context. Given the timeline for these exhibition we selected 6-8 stories to present as posters pasted on a stand and presented the remainder as mounted frames on surfaces present in the localities.
Our focus for these exhibitions was to bring the stories developed by the students back to their local communities, to draw out the local residents, and encourage a culture of engaging with photography and storytelling. We arranged these exhibitions by placing stories themes resonance together. We highlighted the most powerful photo essays as posters pasted on a stand and displayed others as prints pasted on wood in each site.
Site Selection
Our aim was to selected activated and meaningful spaces for each exhibit. To do this we consulted with the students to identify meaningful and activated community spaces to display their work. In some instances we also considered how the site resonated with stories of that locality as well as whether hosting an exhibition in the space could highlight a hidden gem for that community.
Mega Exhibition
For the mega exhibition we took a slightly different approach and chose to organise the stories by the themes highlighted during the local exhibition. Given the scale of the exhibition we wanted to make the stories and the exhibits more interactive and thoughtful. This is why we chose to make themed exhibit spaces with multimedia presentation of the photographs and write ups.
Installation Design
We made rough sketches of the space and how we wanted each space to be set up in a way that amplified the theme and storytelling.
Brochures
We adapted two photo essays into a brochure and pamphlet form because they had lengthy write ups. One was about an Afghan woman who despite being granted asylum and living in Pakistan for x years was not granted a National Identity Card (NIC). For this story we decided to adapt the brochure into an accordion fold to make it resemble an NIC when folded and then open to reveal the write up.
PVC Pipe Installation
As a common theme in many of the photo essays related to water and sanitation we decided to create an immersive installation with pipes to display them. The structure was built with PVC pipe and the photographs were fixed on. We also placed buckets of water in the installation while playing a looped audio of water dripping to emphasise the wastage of clean water in Karachi.
Digital Privilege Walk
With each photo essay the curatorial team reflected on the conditions in our own neighbourhoods and became aware of our own privilege. We wanted to make this reflection an active part of the exhibit so we developed a digital privilege walk. For each theme we developed a question and form that was linked to a live updating infographic at the start of the exhibit. Visitors were asked to answer the question on tablets placed in each installation and reflect on their own privilege. The questions were presented in english due to limitations of the digital form but the infographic was presented in urdu.