‘Lucknow of Balochistan’

Pasni, the coastal city of Makran, known for its art and literature is called ‘Lucknow of Balochistan’. Sand Art is steadily gaining popularity amongst the youngsters of this city.

The fishermen locality is producing most talented artists, most of the sand sculptures are made on the coast of Juddi.

One of the artists Sajid Moosa, a member of Izm-Aazmaan group which promotes sand art, talking about sand sculpting said, “While making sand sculpture one has to minutely view every angle before starting, unlike painting. One mistake and your entire hard work gets wasted.”

He said that his group had participated in Gawadar Sand Art Festival. “Our next program is to make sand sculptures at the coast of kandMalir, however, the sand of Pasni coast is better than other areas for sand sculpting”, he explained.

According to Moosa the sand is gathered by a shovel then made harder through water and after sculpting it is cleansed with a brush.

Explaining the process, local poet and artist Kamran Aslam told Pak Voices, “Sand art is different from other forms of art as in this art a group of three to four people work together to sculpt and it can take 3 to 4 hours to complete. Every person does their own work.”

“Various tools are needed for making sand sculptures and the local artists get these tools from Karachi,” he said.

“Sand sculpting is a unique form of art and many children are also getting an interest in this art”, local teacher Miran Qazi told Pak voices.

Danish Saeed another member of Izm-Aazmaan said that they started the art of sand sculpting three years back in Pasni.

“We have made many sand sculptures and it is not an easy art. It requires hard work and time and ironically it doesn’t stay for long and is washed away by water tides in a few hours”, he said.

“The artists are making use of this art on self help basis as we have no platform or government’s patronage to help highlight this rare form of talent,” he said regrettably.