LAHORE: Traditional folk toys, especially made of clay and reed, of the land of Punjab have almost disappeared since the imported toys, especially made in China and those of plastic, flooded the local markets even in rural areas.

An exhibition of photographs and traditional toys on the same theme by multidisciplinary artist, photographer and storyteller Waqas Manzoor is happening at Alhamra Art Centre. This exhibition is titled Khed, Khadaunay and Kathawaan (games, toys and stories).

The exhibition was opened by Punjabi scholar Prof Saeed Bhutta of the GCU.

It has paper pigeons, clay toys like Ghugho Ghoray and sun-dried clay pots, reed rattles, drums made of cardboard and reed, windmill (Bhambeeri) made of kite paper and reed and many others.

They are accompanied by photographs of the same with white background that make the viewers concentrate focus on the artisans products that Waqas has turned into artworks. They provide the onlookers with a chance to have a visual and tangible experience simultaneously. By dis-playing the toys along with the photographs, Waqas has made an effort to bring to the limelight the life and stories of the artisans and their art passed from generations to generations. Not only that, he has indirectly made the struggle of the traditional craftsmen and women in the transformed contemporary world a subject of his work. One can see a couple of artisans and their stories in the exhibition.

`The photographs on display are my own but the folk toys have been collected from various locations, including Lahore, Ahmedpur East and Multan,` Waqas tells Dawn. He says his project started with a personal experience when he heard the sound of a folk toy in a street and realised that the familiar sound is no longer heard in his surroundings now.

`I myself heard it after a gap of many years and my inquiry started from that day in 2022. The people who visited my exhibition also told me that it transported them to their childhood.

Waqas started pondering where these folk toys were made, how they were made and who was making them and found out that it was a whole unique journey for the craftsmen and women too. He met one such family of Ameer Khan and Khatoon Bibi atBabu Sabu on the edge of Lahore. They had come to Lahore from a village, Banjar, in the Talagang area. Once in Lahore, they learnt the craft of toy-making from a craftsman of Multan. Ameer Khan sells the toys on his bicycle in Iqbal Town, Johar Town,Model Town, Muslim Town and Gulberg.

This shows his resilience as there is now a dearth of buyers of traditional toys made of clay and reed while he is not allowed to enter areas like DHA. The family taught the craft of toy-making to their next generation but it`s no more profitable for them.

The son of Ameer Khan has left the traditional business of his family and now either does fishing or breeds sacrificial animals for others to sell on Eid. Ameer knows that his grandson would not learn this art.

`What unique about these families is that they are living in this era but they were in a different time zone. They are unaffected by the ramifications of capitalism. They have their own vocabulary and past experiences.

Waqas says he decided to photograph the traditional toys because they have been left only for the museums and nobody plays with them now. `Along with toys, come the craft people who are more important because they are preserving their ancestral heritage and art while they are carrying forward it too.

He laments that the so-called technological revolution and plastic industry have replaced the cultural toy industry. The exhibition would continue till Jan 28.