@hamra_abbas

@lawrieshabibi is returning to Art Basel Hong Kong 2025. Booth 3C16 includes Flower Studies alongside Aerial Studies that was originally commissioned by Lahore Biennale Foundation.

Abbas’s Aerial Studies are among the latest pieces the artist has realized in marble inlay, which she began to work with after her return to Lahore in 2015, engaging with local workshops and in the process developing a close familiarity with the stone’s variations across different parts of Pakistan and Asia. The desire to document the mountains at Skardu, in the north of the country, meanwhile, came about during a recent visit there that made the effects of global warming shockingly clear. As Abbas recalls, “20 years ago I went to Skardu in June and it was freezing cold. This year (2023) we needed air conditioning. So, when I looked at my digital sketches based on the aerial photography I did on a Skardu flight, I found them alarming, thinking of the climate – the rising temperatures, the glaciers melting in Gilgit-Baltistan region, the 3000+ lakes formed there, and the floods expected.” The starkness of the marble thus serves as a reminder of the vulnerability of the mountain ecosystem. @lahorebiennalefoundation