Karachi: For years, Karachi’s walls have been spattered with the bloodstains of murder victims and scrawled with graffiti touting everything from sectarian hatred to quack cures for erectile dysfunction.
Now a group of artists and volunteers are reclaiming the walls by painting them with cheerful designs to bring some happiness and pride back to an often violent, chaotic, corrupt city.
Karachi, Pakistan’s economic capital and biggest metropolis, has been swamped in recent years by a wave of extortion, murder and kidnapping — for religious, criminal, ethnic and political reasons.
Those behind the new project called “Reimaging the walls of Karachi” hope that taking art to the streets can bring a more positive outlook to its 20 million inhabitants.
“We are working together and taking back the city by reclaiming the walls filled with hate graffiti,” artist Norayya Shaikh Nabi told AFP while drawing an abstract of the city on a wall along a busy road.
Nabi, an art teacher at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, is one of 200 artists, artisans and laborers participating in the project.
With help from the city authorities to get their permission, they aim to repaint walls in 1,600 different places — from warehouses to schools to flyovers and underpasses.
Pakistan boasts some talented young artists, but public art is rare.
Munawar Ali Syed, who is leading the team of artists, said it was a pleasure to take their work beyond the elite circles of galleries and graduate shows.
“It’s important for society to remain involved with art and music, but unfortunately, such things are waning from our culture,” Syed told AFP.
“In my 17-year art practice in the galleries, I have enjoyed working here the most as I communicate directly with my viewers.”
Under Syed’s watchful eye, a team of artists uses stencils to create images of boys flying kites, donkey cart races and other images of rural life.
Elsewhere, vivid, brightly colored paintings of peacocks and elephants have radically changed Karachi’s feel and drawn foreigners, who usually move with extreme caution around a volatile city.
Aside from daily murders, Karachi was hit by two major terror attacks in just over a year.
A Taliban attack on the airport left 38 people dead last year in June, and in May this year, shooters slaughtered 45 Shias on a bus. It was the first attack in Pakistan to be claimed by the Islamic State group.
The project’s coordinator, Adeela Suleman, said she was delighted the work had brought a “less hostile” look.
Schoolchildren have also been made part of the project, hoping to shift a sense of ownership of the city and its appearance onto the younger generations.
“We included younger people so they can carry this work on further,” said Nabi as she worked with her teenage daughter on a wall.
“When they grow up, they will feel comfortable working for the city — like planting a seed for the next generations.”
The artists hope the project will subtly change people’s behavior after years of violence, softening them a little.
“I believe that this will yield good results in the long term,” Syed said.
“When you see positive things around you, your behavior becomes positive, and a big change comes along in your life.”
