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Encroachments, 2019

VR environment, duration variable

Co-commissioned by Sharjah Art Foundation - SB14, 2019 and New Art Exchange, Nottingham. Generously supported by the Bagri Foundation, Jhaveri Contemporary, Mumbai and Timothy Taylor, London.

Still from Encroachments, 2019.

Still from Encroachments, 2019.

Encroachments takes a pragmatic and oblique look at the relations between Pakistan and the US since partition in 1947. It is a meditation on the idea of sovereignty, private property and the politics of space in the 2 largest cities in Pakistan (Lahore & Karachi). The term ‘Encroachment’ is used to designate the backlash in Pakistani politics and the media against so-called illegal structures built onto the fabric of existing private and state infrastructure.

Austrian-American Modernist architect Richard Neutra was selected to make the proposed US embassy in Karachi, and construction began in 1959. However, by the time it was completed the capital was moved to the new city of Islamabad, and Neutra’s building was downgraded to a Consulate.

The central element of the VR is the building itself. On the journey there and onwards, the user passes through various parallel environments, including renowned colonial-era bookshop Ferozsons in Lahore, established in 1894, which resembles a maze game. This gives way to a secret passage into the Reagan years and a video game arcade that references the anti-Soviet propaganda that fuelled a large amount of early game design evolving against the backdrop of the Soviet-Afghan war.

Click here to view a trailer.

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