“The Other Storey” (2018) is a site-specific installation created during the Pioneer Cement Residency, facilitated by…

“The Other Storey” (2018) is a site-specific installation created during the Pioneer Cement Residency, facilitated by @canvasgallerykhi curated by @quddusmirza , at the Pioneer Cement Plant in Khushab.

While at the residency, I came across this watchtower standing quietly inside the factory compound — one of many such structures that have become a fixture of our built environment as the law and order situation in Pakistan shifted. At first, they were a misfit, even unsettling. Today, despite growing in number, they’ve receded into the background, absorbed so fully into daily life that we no longer register their presence.

My practice is often concerned with this kind of quiet integration — how the eye adapts, and how an unsettling presence becomes invisible over time. For “The Other Storey,” I decided to combine this grey, utilitarian structure with the colorful landscape of Khushab itself, where homes are often painted with bold patterns and bright hues. I covered the tower’s surface with saturated purples and blues, and decorative motifs drawn from the city’s own visual language.

In doing so, the tower is pulled back into visibility — not as a symbol of threat, but as part of the landscape it was always standing in.

@seemanusrat