Locus: Where Eyes Settle
2026

Through surveillance masculine-centric public spaces in Karachi are re-examined. Women are navigating environments such as a water tanker in Korangi and boats in the fisheries of Ibrahim Hyderi, sites shaped by water politics, informal distribution networks and shifting ecological conditions. Within this tension, the female body becomes both site-anchored and hyper-visible, held within layered fields of observation and subjected to multiple viewers, whether in a dhaba watching an Indian film or in an electronic market in Clifton.

Drawing from Karachi’s class-stratified access to water and coastal displacement, women’s presence unsettles gender norms, transforming water infrastructures and maritime spaces into negotiated spaces where access, power and visibility are reimagined.