In Ali kazim’s Studio

From the archive. 1# Published earlier in Art Now Pakistan 2013. Pre-text: I am sharing this piece as an invitation to my community (all of you) and myself  for many deeper conversations, adventures, and thinking together. In this  ‘from the archive’ series, I will be sharing pieces that hold urgency and depth in the present. […]

‘And So They Laughed’ – A video essay on Pakistani Women and activism, presented live at Tate Britain Women in Revolt:radical acts, contemporary resonances conference March 2024.

Women in Revolt:radical acts, contemporary resonances conference “And So They Laughed…” ’ Sehr Jalil (Goldsmiths, University of London / National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan)Colonial, religious, or nationalist movements have instigated revolts in women, particularly in the aftermath and colossal absorption of slow violence and voluntary silences for aeons. The Women’s Action Forum (WAF) revolted […]

Lights and silence

The London buses are delayed and people ooze out and in I don’t know what I am doing here, but it’s a pause – a button that waits when there is noise on both sides… I could not let myself un-hear and un-listen to the conversations of two friends whose faces were joined to mine […]

What could be bought?

800000000 calculations of what could be done with 200 Pakistani Rupees ran in Fatiha’s head but the conclusions were miniaturisque , a chocolate, a cheap bus ride back home , a desi ( local meal) roti and salan( bread and gravy, a kite, locally made colour pencils? This was an upper middle class/ middle class […]

Is smiling a good thing ?

Upio was standing on the bus stop, her gait was metal but the anger on her face just didn’t do enough to hide the forgotten kindness and love in her heart. She made the random brown girl apologise for smiling at her, the girl apologised and a deeper echo came out of her lips ” […]

My first days in London…

This city sends you back home even if you are as bad as me in finding ways or as fond as me of getting lost… It’ll lift you with the collar, embrace you, fix your hair and send you back to the new home it has made for you.. This city is a silent observer […]

Self-portrait 2 ‘salt’

The day Alexander’s horses refused to eat the greens from that soil –  I knew I would be found.. I was bitter for them but luminous and transparent inside, the Himalayas breathed softer due to me, light had another friend… I could make people breath better… Sea water is gulped out by swimmers if they […]

The Alchemy and Art of TEA. In conversation with Jeff Fuchs, award winning TEA Explorer

“I feel we need to educate and promote the philosophy of tea which in my eyes at least is about making time, an offering, it’s about humility, when you prepare a cup of tea for someone, a guest, friend, family member, at least in my perspective its is something sacred and particularly with everything that’s going on in the world right now I think it’s an opportunity to figure out what it is that is really important to each of us”

Paradise, pandemic and hopes.In conversation with Edwin Koo -Award Winning Singaporean Photographer

In 2013 I began a search to ‘Understand the Phenomena of Paradise through Contemporary Visual Art’ and my final MA Visual Arts dissertation withheld that title. Back then I’d excavated Edwin Koo’s paradise photography while rummaging thousands of paradisiacal visual art inquiries around the globe. I chose Koo’s work as one of the five case […]

When people shed like tree leaves

  Together or alone in the online world?  Journal writing – thoughts  From one window to the other – the air is the same. Sky is clear but we have been banned like the kites in Pakistan. Is the thread too harsh? Is the act too festive? Does it have a history that we don’t […]