Drawing Room: Why Vishnu Prasad loves Ajmal Shifaz’s collaborative art

Ajmal Shifaz used junk metal objects and the imagination of children to bring a community closer. Alongside, he created art in motion

It’s rare for people to openly talk about contentious events. But Ajmal Shifaz is unafraid to do so. He makes public art in collaboration with local communities. Most of the works reference observations on society through a compassionate lens.

Ajmal Shifaz’s sculpture is inspired by the games the kids played on the streets of Mustafabad in the aftermath of the 2020 violence.

Once Shifaz put the sculpture on the street, children from the neighbourhood flocked to it.

Shifaz set up a studio in the middle of a scrap-processing quarter in Mustafabad.