An area no less than a landfill was transformed into a beautiful rustic outdoor studio by the students of Visual Studies at Karachi University. You! takes a look...
design studio
An area no less than a landfill was transformed into a beautiful rustic outdoor studio by the students of Visual Studies at Karachi University. You! takes a look...
They say that the artist’s fortunate hands have untold potential to turn a blank canvas into a masterpiece. Be it a piece of garbage or a dump that no one would bother with a second glance, for an artist that is where their true skill shines. A prime example of this can be found at the Department of Visual Studies (VS) in University of Karachi, where a landfill at the back of the department, was transformed into an artsy outdoor studio by its students.
Looking at this space now, no one could think that it used to be a no-go area where years of rubble and garbage had piled up, along with an open sewage that made it unacceptable to pass through, let alone work. The ‘Outdoor Studio Project’- to revamp the area - started back in 2013, when Mr Asim Mehdi Kazmi was assigned to teach ‘Material & Process’ course to the foundation year students. In this course, the students learn to explore different materials and how they can be used apart from their common functionality.
The concept behind the Outdoor Studio
Explaining the concept behind the project, Mr Kazmi shared, “The assignments at VS are such that it is not necessary that your class work is finished in the duration of the class. So, students have to stay back in order to finish them. Especially students who already have jobs, it gets really hard for them to manage their work within the university hours. Also, middle-class and lower-middle class homes don’t have sufficient space to work things like sculptures, papermaking and metal etc, because the kind of material that is required disturbs the entire household. All this had been in my mind from my student life which is why I decided to fix it.”
Spilling the creative juices...
The studio’s walls are painted with brilliant artwork that has famous Marvel and other movie characters to add a fun element. Stone pathways lead up to the four well-built wooden kiosks erected over the land-scraped ground among wooden benches and a swing. Strategically, the kiosks have been placed under the trees so that the students get natural shade. It’s no surprise that it’s a favourite spot for the students to relax and unwind after class. However, this was no easy feat to achieve as the area required much work before any installations could be made. “The clean-up of the area took us about two years. I have two semesters of the foundation year and each semester has 16 classes. Every week, one class is dedicated for cleaning the studio which itself is a strenuous task. We had no machinery, just two trolleys (one with a punctured tyre) and hay baskets to carry the rubble and stones. We also made use of our strength by making a long queue to move the rocks. Also, whoever knows KU, knows that the university is home to different species of bugs and even snakes that often used to appear when we were at work,” explained Mr Kazmi.
“We didn’t have the expenses and neither did the university, but we had to fix our place. The department had a few funds, students and teachers contributed but it wasn’t sufficient. So we fully relied on our labour and utilised the money for snacks and drinks after a day’s work under the sun,” he further added.
After two years of labour, the task to build these structures started in 2015. The ground was levelled with rockery and gravel, and wooden pallets were recycled for the kiosks. As a part of the course, the students learn how to use wood (commercial or recycled) creatively, so around 100 students were divided into four groups to build a kiosk each. The basic structure had been the same but the details were different depending on what they wanted in it. Also, keeping the late classes in mind, the kiosks are well-lit and have sockets where they can charge their phones and laptops.
This initiative was not a one-time project. Every year, there are new changes made by the new batch to make the space even better. This time around, wooden chicks have been added to shade the workstations (where the students do their project related tasks) during the scorching sun in the summers. There are also plans to enclose the area, for which the prefabricated panels are already made.
Educational institutes churn out professionals but it’s also important that students are educated on civic sense too. “If this place is really dear to me or my students, it is because we have worked on it like it was our home. We have done everything by hand, even if that meant clearing an entire truck’s worth of garbage. I am educating the students to own the place where you learn. Also, as Visual Studies is completely a creative field, it requires students to not just develop a creative depth but also, they need to practice in a creative environment. And, this is the reason why I try to tell my students to have an emotional attachment to their place of work in order to create art,” he concludes.
