FAISAL ANWAR

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Faisal Anwar

My inquiry lies in the many forms of human engagement, finding and telling stories that emerge and evolve with the ever-changing forms of mediums of communications. For me It’s fascinating to live and work through the recent art movements and experience how technology is progressing especially in the past 2 decades. I believe we are going through a major shift across all disciplines and global cultures. Industries are merging and going through digital transformations. We are constantly evolving and exploring new ways to connect and reflect with the concerns of present times. I feel, it’s critical for us to ask new questions, engage, collaborate, experiment and reflect in ways that may shape our present and future.

Artwork details:

Title: CharBagh

Fileformat: MP4

Year: 2021

Artwork description:

The term ‘charbagh’ refers to the Persian/Islamic-style quadrilateral garden divided by walkways or flowing water into four smaller parts with axial paths intersecting at the garden’s centre. This highly structured geometrical scheme is a powerful metaphor for the organization and domestication of the landscape and a symbol of socio-political territory.

Using internet/web, open network data and patterned geometry, Charbagh is an ever-evolving, dynamic digital garden that grows over time with incoming streams of large public data. The project examines today’s socio-political realities, questioning the changing human behaviours, and how we access and interpret information; how the data generated in social media documents our modern history and blurs the line of facts and fiction.

“The idea of creating a digital garden using social media and big data furthers Faisal’s ongoing interest in re-imagining nature and organic forms in light of technology.” Zulfikar Hirji, Curator, Writer, Associate Professor York University Toronto.

“Charbagh is much more than just an architectural form or a participatory art – it is a symbol of coexistence and sustainable living for contemporary times” deconfine festival.

2016. A large scale digital garden was projected on the facade of the Aga Khan Museum and presented at the Ismaili Center growing throughout the night. Audiences interacted using cellphones to add new content in real-time.

2019: Presented at the exhibition, Garden in the Machine, Surrey Art Gallery, Vancouver. The artwork grows out of workshops with Surrey residents responding to questions on sustainable food production, climate change and nature.

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