The intrepid panel of researchers, photographers, writers, and activists who have compiled the information and gone on to publish the book Giving Voice to Silence redeem humanity by bearing witness to the multitudinous and harrowing tales of a subset of…
Cities keep stories They are embedded in weathered buildings and fading signboards, in brittle documents, forgotten photographs and carefully folded maps whose creases have survived generations of use. Some are preserved in libraries and museums; others remain hidden in private…
I walked into Intimate Resistance at The VASL Gallery on the 25th of November 2025 with a kind of cautious curiosity. Photography exhibitions in Pakistan are rare to begin with, and when they do happen, they often fall into familiar…
I have lived in Pakistan for seventeen years and as much as I love the culture and feel at home here, I still feel like a foreigner. I grew up in a typical Australian family in Northern NSW where the…
May 09th 2026 saw the opening of In Minor Keys, the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia curated by the (late) Koyo Kouoh. Once again, included in the roster of nations represented at the biennale, is a…
As a platform committed to critical cultural production from and about the Global South, The Karachi Collective creates space for connecting struggles across geographies through art, testimony, and collective memory. Presented alongside the conversations taking place, on social media and…
The lake is already awake when the artists arrive. Houseboats rock gently, fastened more by habit than rope. Nets dry in uneven arcs along their wooden spines. Children lean over the water’s edge, watching reflections rupture and reform. For five…
The cultural and economic value of textile craft micro-enterprises is often visible in present-day urban centres, projects led by non-profits, and consumerist practices in Pakistan. Reading through definitions of textile craft25, one comes across descriptions referring to activities engaged with…
Last year, I visited ‘The Haveli Museum’ in Karachi, where the exhibition The Coat of Many Colours displayed textile-based crafts from Sindh. These objects included bujhki37, coverlets, and posh38, among several others. Observing these items stirred a quiet nostalgia for…
This essay is based on an interview between the author and Karachi-born, Brooklyn-based artist Hiba Schahbaz. Hiba Schahbaz’s paintings look autobiographical; self-portraiture is a recurring theme representing her unknown and unresolved cognitive musings. However, the contexts shift visually between the…
