Essays


Icons from Traditional Indian Miniatures in Contemporary Art

Manuscript making and illumination in the Indian Mughal courts has been a well-recognized high-art form in South Asia between the fifteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Emperors, such as Akbar (b.1542-1605) and Shah Jahan (b.1592-1666), frequently posed on terraces of their…

The Art of Dissent

A. R. Nagori once proclaimed that he had “earned the distinction of being the first painter in the Subcontinent to be censored.”13 He certainly wasn’t the last. How a state attempts to censor and censure artists ultimately reveals not only…

Unraveling ‘Empowerment’ in Craft Encounters

Questions of power, privilege and power relations are seldom asked in craft development. Paradoxically enough many craft development projects with artisanal communities are labelled as ‘empowerment’ yet fail to recognise power can manifest in the very act of craft making…

Reed Pen to Digital Art: The Journey of Illustrations for Children’s Urdu Books

Language and its usage in Pakistan is a contentious issue; while Urdu is recognized as the national language

The Lok Virsa: A Cultural & Educational Repository

The Lok Virsa Heritage Museum- The first State Museum of Ethnology located in Islamabad, Pakistan presents the history and existing traditions of the people of Pakistan. The Museum was established for the fundamental purpose of promoting and creating awareness of…

Conversations through Photography: Broadening the lens

Iona Fergusson and Numair A. Abbasi respond to photographer Wendy Marijnissen’s book Always the Guest. Dislocating photography from the narrative of representation both writers present the readers with multiple viewpoints to engage with her works while sparking a conversation on…

Rights of Karachi: Heritage, Development & Humanity

Today’s topic for discussion stems from science. It is often considered technical. And Tangible. But there is an

Loss and Tension in the Exploration of Text in/as Image in Pakistani Art

Language and its usage in Pakistan is a contentious issue; while Urdu is recognized as the national language

Textiles as Heirlooms

After repeated visits over the years, to the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in South Kensington

Rashid Rana – Challenging Notions of Truth

The art of Rashid Rana has been exhaustively written about, and while conducting research for this piece

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