Pakistan’s DAWN Website
January 27, 2014
Author: Asif Umar/Taahira Booya

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Packing Pakistan

David Greg Harth, an interactive visual artist from New York, invited the audience members at T2F to bring a memorabilia of Karachi for him to pack in a suitcase to take back home.

Harth said, “he expected nothing” from the audience but received paintings, coins, prayer mats and matchsticks as some objects by the end of the night.

Harth intends to take the suitcase back to New York where he will compile a book composed of photographs of these objects and the meaning it holds for the person and will send each contributor a signed copy of the book.

The event, which took place on January 15, was a brief showcase of Harth’s short films, photography and videos.

Notably, he always had the element of human interaction, for he believes that art does not exist without the viewer.

His work varies from one where he had people order a preserved cat with his credit card to handing out edited dollar bills.

Harth takes to engaging people in conversation about issues that matter in his work. In 2008, he traveled to a small town in Palestine, which involved him balancing on a rope that held him together with a rock and the act of strangers in Palestine pulling his weight over.

Similarly, in his performance at T2F, he sought out to understand the meaning of the different objects that were given to him from the audience. He points out that “even if our countries seemed to be at war, we are all human after all.”

Text by Taahira Booya/Dawn.com