Text | Numair Abbasi
Visuals | Courtesy Copper & Steel Karachi

Curated by multifaceted architect and designer Arshad Faruqui, the exhibition “Something borrowed something new” celebrates the multifarious uses of copper and demonstrates its malleability through the display of art, furniture, home and garden accessories- all produced from this versatile material. Faruqui gathered a cohort of artists, designers, and architects whose works he has followed for a long time and in his own words, influenced his practice. He conceived the premise years ago but during the concatenation of global lockdowns enforced to prevent the spread of Covid circumstances catalysed his intent to realise this exhibition. Faruqui became increasingly fascinated with how despite the restriction on human mobility, it is near impossible to impede the movement of ideas – they are wilful and could float freely through other means. It led him to work in close correspondence with the invited artists both from within and outside Pakistan, and build a virtual incubator of knowledge where they remotely exchanged ideas, perspectives, and possibilities. Faruqui and his team monitored the production of their works and help physically realise them either in parts or in their entirety. Through this reciprocity, the artist and curator shadowed the longstanding modus operandi employed in the skill manship of metalwork, frequently replacing the roles of artist, designer, thinker, and maker, where Faruqui presided over the making of the artists’ works. This intriguing process of collaboration lent the name to the exhibition as Faruqui and the participating artists borrowed ideas from one another to create something new.