Courtesy of the artist and Experimenter, Kolkata 

In this work, Abidi has created an inventory of security barriers across Karachi over the past decade. She documents the global proliferation of an architecture of control and exclusion as seen through the smallest unit. Documented on location through actual photographs and then meticulously redrawn on the computer, this becomes an index of barriers found at checkpoints, airports, embassies, elite housing complexes and diplomatic residences. The work functions as a blueprint for paranoia and militarization in the metropolis, particularly in light of the United States ‘War on Terror’ and the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, which directly affected everyday life in many Pakistani cities.

The security barriers reflect the increasing fragmentation and division of civilian society, leading to a localised security infrastructure becoming an extension of geopolitical borders and a divided subcontinent where fear and suspicion reign over a people with a shared history.