New Geographies

A freehand felt-tip pen and alcohol marker artwork, UV printed on high-quality Canson 180 gsm cold-pressed archival paper.
Limited run of 20 editions only.
Individually numbered and hand-signed by the artist.
The original artwork has been sold.

This drawing depicts Karachi in the year 2100, a city that once sat on a major fault line. A colossal shift in tectonic plates has now swallowed the city into the depths of the earth. Unable to adapt, the formal development patterns that once housed about 40% of the the city's massive population have entirely disappeared. On the other hand, the informal development patterns that housed the remaining 60% continue to survive, finding new ways of appropriating a new geography - just as they did in the past. In these valleys down under, life carries on under a new parasitic relationship, demonstrating new forms of negotiations with a newly formed land. What has not changed is that they were invisible then - and they are invisible now.

Majority of the population of the major South Asian cities works in the informal economy and resides in informal settlements. Despite facilitating the formal sector and making significant contributions to both local and national economies, it remains unrecognised, unrepresented and unprotected.