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World Art
A while back I got to hear Naiza Khan talk about her art in the volatile country of Pakistan. Her art is some impressive thought-provoking work and it had me thinking that I should be better about the art I do end up creating.
I will be the first to admit that I’m mainly ignorant about the art world outside of the usual western, or western-tied set. Hearing that Pakistan had a plethora of artists shouldn’t have surprised me, but it did.
The odd thing is I’ve read many books about less mainstream artists, and they mostly were focused on European or American artists, with only a handful of street artists from elsewhere making the cut.
She mentioned such greats as the Awami Art Collective and T2f and VASL and the Manova project and Tentative Collective.
Of course, being in Pakistan, they are in the world and so have to suffer from the same hegemony of Capital that we all do. So there too there’s the corporate force that’s ghettoizing and gentrifying of art deemed appropriate and that which is not.
But there is much strife in Pakistan and many powers that push against art which cannot be used. There are forces, she said, inside and outside the country which wish stifle creativity.
Khan mentioned how forces were against the Lahore lit Festival. But what stood out are how the dual forces I mentioned work…
