Odd spaces and new media
June 17, 2017: Odd spaces and new media (The Friday Times) My talk to artist Faisal Anwar, whose work plays with space and time in…
Odd spaces and new media
Raza Rumi talks to artist Faisal Anwar, whose work plays with space and time in the digital era. Faisal Anwar is a renowned interactive,…
The party line
My exclusive interview for the Friday Times with Kamran Asdar Ali about his book and the history of the Pakistani left Your book employs…
Remembering Intizar Husain
(L-R) Jamila Hashmi, Intizar Husain, Masood Ashar and Kishwar Naheed Raza Rumi remembers Intizar Husain as a colossus of letters, but also as a…
Midnight’s furies
The violent process of Partition remains a highly contested domain in the study of history. Raza Rumi examines various histories of Partition in the…
Meeting Samiya
I saw Dukhtar with the film’s protagonist, rekindling memories personal and political It was utterly delightful when my friend Samiya Mumtaz now a celebrated…
Mumtaz Qadri – Salmaan Taseer – Blasphemy it was not
Pakistan’s Supreme Court has upheld the death penalty for Mumtaz Qadri “the policeman who murdered former Punjab governor Salmaan Taseer in January 2011 for…
Animating Times Square
This October, the electronic billboards at the maddening Times Square in New York City will display the creative prowess of Shahzia Sikander, an artist…
Grace in hand
Komail Aijazuddin’s artwork marks a step beyond the earlier explorations of the baroque symbolism Komail Aijazuddin is a representative of Pakistan’s younger generation of…
Islam and the Cold War baroque
When empire strikes back, but the Force remains strong in the arts and academia of contemporary Muslim countries. I spared with Sadia Abbas As…
Chronicles of our recent past
FS Aijazuddin’s new book is an erudite and introspective account of a turbulent decade The past decade in Pakistan has been cataclysmic. Political upheavals…
More Than Just a Footnote
Mustafa: associate, companion, employee, friend A year after gunmen attacked his car, killing his young driver, I mourn the loss of Mustafa It has…
Journey to change
In referencing N M Rashed, clay pots, paper boats, the river Ravi and the lost garment Saddri, Pakistani artist Sabah Husain creates a seamless…
The City Speaks
Shaan Taseer’s debut solo exhibition is a ceremonial homecoming for the artist. It has taken the gifted Shaan Taseer almost two decades to focus…
About suffering they were never wrong
Pakistani art going global is a remarkable story, for it typifies the ineffable contradictions of the country. In part it is a testament to…
The terrorism challenge
The Pakistani government must take swift, effective action to implement its will and assert its authority. Pakistan’s terrorism challenge has burgeoned into a full-blown…
Through the looking glass
After a decade of epistolary exchanges, I finally met Shahzia Sikander, Pakistan’s most celebrated global icon of the arts, ironically unsung at home. Not…
Promoting pluralist folk heritage is vital for Pakistan future
Dr Fouzia Saeed, a scholar and civil society activist, was recently appointed as the head of Lok Virsa the premier government institution to…
Manto women
Manto stands more or less alone in the position he takes on women, contends Raza Rumi, in an exploration of Manto relationship with his…
The verse of freedom
In a powerful exploration of resistance poetry in indigenous languages, I discovered marginalized poets challenging mainstream Pakistani identity in moving verse. Much has been…