Planting wheat between desert and sea 🌾 invoking songs of harvesting truth, collective nourishment and surrender unto…
Planting wheat between desert and sea 🌾 invoking songs of harvesting truth, collective nourishment and surrender unto rain in times of famine and warfare. Composing this ambitious and heart-led project with @rishamsyed and the team in Lahore and Sharjah has been memorable.
Risham Syed’s multidisciplinary practice engages with global networks of mercantilism and colonial expansion from her base in Lahore. An avid collector of images, heirlooms and curiosities, she examines taxonomies of knowledge, the impact of orientalism on the present, and aesthetic hierarchies of class, exoticism and power. Syed’s installation Unn, Pani, Sut (Grain,water, Truth) (2024-ongoing) brings together agrarian, sonic and kinetic rhythms, centring the wheat field and granary as protagonists for exploring notions of generosity, sacred transfer and distribution in Sikh philosophy. Hailing from a family of poets and musicians, the artist gleans verses from the Mūl Mantar, opening text of the scripture Guru Granth Sahib and statement of Sikh beliefs, as well as a Punjabi musical tradition attesting to the truth inherent in edible grain. Witness to the planetary crisis of hunger and food insecurity from multiple wars and climate disasters, this work embraces protracted time cycles from planting to harvest. With a fistful of grains, Syed evokes the traditional practice of langar [community kitchen] with offerings made for collective nourishment.
Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry
Amal Khalaf, Zeynep Öz, Alia Swastika, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala
The Ancestral Well: Pulse to Terrain
Curated by Natasha Ginwala
Assistant Curators: Amal al Ali and Ose Ekore
Ty to the gardeners of Sharjah Municipality
Installation view: Sharjah Biennial 16, Bait Habib Yousuf, Sharjah, 2025. Image courtesy of Sharjah art Foundation. Photo: Aziz Hazara and Shahnavas Jamaldeen
