The Aesthetics of a System Default

 

The visual reference of scaffolding or shuttering comes from under construction sites around the city that we have been observing in abundance since a few years. In history, we find that time alters all kinds of landscapes, urban or natural as a regular process of evolution. Change is inevitable and cities are always changing, growing, and erasing or making new landmarks. Cities too, have personalities like people and we are drawn to points of reference that become familiar and hence they become a personal collective sense of belonging.

 

I am attempting to preserve, Lahore, my city’s existence today while its physical appearance is constantly changing. The state of impermanence and regression within the socio-political and economic discourse, feeds this urge to make photographs that depict physical changes within this land, holding it suspended in time. These changes are too grand; their gigantic existence makes one feel minuet and at times powerless. The previous landmarks of this city are now unapproachable and exist only in memory.

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In my work, the final imagery is developed from photographs taken around the city at particular landmarks with slight alterations to draw out a clear metaphor. My work attempts to draw a bridge between the past and the future of the physical appearance of these landmarks.