Nina Hyde, then Washington Post fashion editor, wrote: "His jewellery is made from elements rarely worn by the wealthy women of Pakistan, who prefer gold and precious stones… even when he uses such unlikely materials as cowbells, nails and washers in his pendants, they rave – and wear them.

Upon returning from almost six years in the United States, Gulgee felt a wanted to engage with the South Asian imagery he had grown up with.

[8] He appropriated this South Asian religious imagery in copper and bronze, juxtaposing these with calligraphic forms from Quranic text.

Throughout the nineties, Gulgee became involved in the burgeoning Pakistani fashion scene after the military dictatorship of Zia ul-Haq, who had introduced strict Islamic legislation into Pakistan.

He does not "sketch or draw [his] work" in the process, allowing a certain freedom, as described by Islamic art historian Oleg Grabar: …works by Gulgee bewilder us by the variety of their expressions, by an apparent freedom in technique and design, by the range of pleasures they offer… It is clear that Gulgee is trying to find the limits of a sculptor's art… he gives pleasure to the senses and excites the mind.

[4][11] A Char Bagh is an Islamic garden designed to a quadripartite plan: two lines intersect at a perpendicular, and one is able to draw a circle or a square around the edges.

For Gulgee, they are his imagined hands, tying into the concept of begreifen explained to him early in his career by German intellectual Annemarie Schimmel, as "learning through touch".

[13] Using earthenware readily available in Karachi from the villages of the Sindh interior, and covering them with a skin of white concrete, mirror and glass, he formed a mosaic wall spanning the rooftop space.

Building on his fascination with Mughal gardens, Gulgee constructed Char Bagh II, shown at Alliance française, New Delhi, in 2013, part of his solo exhibition Through the Looking Glass.

Four independent structures, standing on a floor covered by sand, each had mirrored surfaces at the top and bottom, in which copper leaves hung, suspended in space.

With Char Bagh III, the leaves emerged from mirrored surfaces on the floor, with the central axis demarcated with sand.

7 was installed in the open courtyard of the Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna, transforming the monastic space into a sculptural char bagh.

These installations combined aspects that he had previously experimented with, such as leaves, hanging letters and mirrors, with the new addition of spices (turmeric and red chilli).

In 2013, Gulgee performed Love Marriage in the open-air courtyard at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture.

[20] Artist Saba Iqbal and Gulgee wore geisha-like makeup blurring the lines between masculine and feminine.

They devised a wedding ceremony consisting of breaking eggs into each other's palms, wearing objects created by Gulgee, and using the structure of a traditional South Asian marriage.

In 2014, in the theatre of the Arts Council of Pakistan Karachi, he staged Where is the Apple, Joshinder?, working with eight musicians, dancers, artists and actors over seven months to choreograph and envision this performance.

In Healing II, he had his head ritually shaved, whilst wearing metal wings, in the rooftop installation Salaam Gaudi, surrounded by people close to him.

It was a 40-foot high sculpture in copper, glass, computer motherboards, and steel, and its form consisted of three hieroglyphics from the Indus Valley civilisation.

Gulgee began curation in 2000 with Urban Voices, in the main lobby of the former Sheraton Hotel, during Artfest Karachi.