NCA graduates disappointed at not being persecuted for their art

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    17 May 2004, Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan --- Students at the National College of Art. This government college is one of the oldest in Pakistan and attracts students from all over the country. --- Image by © Ed Kashi/Corbis

    Lahore – Our Model Correspondent: Speaking at a press conference, the alumni of the National College of Arts released a joint statement expressing their dismay at the lack of persecution for their art.

    “We knew that, on an average, there wasn’t going to be much money in the field, and that was something we were mentally prepared for,” said Haider Razzaq, who graduated last year. “But we were not prepared for no one being enraged by the controversial content of our art.”

    “I thought my symbolic representation of the class divide in our country through donkey carcasses arranged to form the chamber of commerce logo would infuriate the capitalist class, who would send their henchmen to tear down my paintings and beat me up,” said Samia Ghumman, class of 2000. “But no such thing happened.”

    “The same is the case with me,” said Uzair Rehman, sculpture major, class of 2009. “I thought my abstract representation of the folly of the two-nation theory (somehow by juxtaposing cow dung figurines with beef figurines) would catch the wrath of the nazaria-e-Pakistan types, who would thrash me about a bit, but…..”

    The joint statement of the press conference demanded that the government of Pakistan should immediately deploy police contingents to make sure that the artists suffer for their art.