Manora Field Notes & Beyond: a Conversation With
Manora Field Notes & Beyond: A conversation with Naiza Khan In 2019, Naiza Khan became the first British-Pakistani artist to represent Pakistan for the country’s inaugural pavilion at the 58th Venice Biennale. Titled Manora Field Notes, the multimedia archival project was inspired by the artist’s twelve years of expansive research and documentation of the maritime trade and histories she unearthed on the island of Manora, situated on the southern part of the Karachi Peninsula. From 1986–1987, Khan studied at Wimbledon College of Art, before going on to receive her BFA in printmaking and painting from the Ruskin School of Fine Art, Oxford. She recently graduated with an MA in Research Architecture from Goldsmiths’ Department of Visual Cultures. Khan’s work has been widely exhibited internationally, including the Kochi- Muziris Biennale (2016) and the Shanghai Biennale (2012), as well as in exhibitions such as ‘Desperately Seeking Paradise’, Art Dubai, UAE (2008); ‘Hanging Firse: Contemporary Art From Pakistan’, Asia Society, New York (2009); Manifesta 8, Murcia, Spain (2010); the Cairo Biennale, Egypt (2010); ‘Restore the Boundaries: The Manora Project’, Rossi & Rossi Gallery and Art Dubai, Dubai, UAE (2010); ); ‘Art Decoding Violence’, XV Biennale Donna, Ferrara, Italy, (2012); and ‘Set In A Moment Yet Still Moving’, Koel Gallery, Karachi (2017). The artist has been selected for a number of fellowships and residencies, including Gasworks, London; the Rybon Art Centre, Tehran; and the Institute for Comparative Modernities, Cornell University, among others. As a founding member and long-time coordinator of the Vasl Artists’ Collective in Karachi, Khan has worked to foster art in the city and participated in a series of innovative art projects in partnership with other workshops in the region and beyond, such as the Khoj International Artists’ Association, New Delhi; the Britto Arts Trust, Dhaka, Bangladesh; the Sutra Art Foundation, Kathmandu, Nepal; and the Theertha International Artists’ Collective, Colombo, Sri Lanka.
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