Artist: Naiza Khan
Material: Single channel video
Length: 2:20 minutes
Near and far sights/sites converge was shot through a homemade telescope (doorbeen) at Manora beach in 2014. Through the circular space one could glimpse a warship, figures among the waves in abandonment. This sense of intimacy and freedom in a public space is shrinking, like the sea itself.
Manora is a restful anchor from the turbulence of Karachi; visitors come to experience the expanse of horizon, a sight they often miss within the dense, congested spaces of the inner city.
Bringing together these two disparate yet intrinsically connected retreats—Manora Beach and Frere Hall gardens—inverts both spaces/spheres. It is like reaching through the lens of the doorbeen, pulling the ocean inwards, and projecting the horizon line on to another part of the city.
This video was first shown in Golimar, Karachi earlier this year.