Bird Talk #8: Ali Kazim

Whether it is the 3000 bird sculptures made of clay and dried in the sun, which disintegrate when it rains, as he showed in an installation at the Lahore Biennale 2020, or the detailed bird drawings that unite to form a collective led by a hoopoe, Kazim creates new contexts and allows viewers to immerse themselves in these birds’ world. At the same time, he also allows us to participate in the lessons that the past holds for the present.
For the exhibition VALLEYS OF THE SIMORGH, which will be on display at hinterland from 27 June to 20 July 2024, he will create a textile work together with Maheen Kazim that will provide a new angle on the Conference of the Birds.
Beforehand, however, on 24 April, he will tell us about his personal connection to Attar’s tale in an evening lecture and explain how it became a source of inspiration for him, as it gives shape to the „perpetual and collective human desire for ultimate spiritual unity“

Ali Kazim (* 1979 in Pakistan) Currently he lives and works in Lahore, Pakistan. He also works as assistant professor at the National College of Arts, Lahore. He received his BFA degree from the National College of Arts, Lahore, Pakistan in 2002 and an MFA from the Slade School of Fine Art, London, UK, in 2011. His work exhibited widely in solo and group shows internationally.

He has received a number of awards and artist residencies including; artist in residence at Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; inaugural Karachi Biennale jury prize; Finalists for the Catlin Prize, UK; The Art House Residency, Wakefield, UK; The Land Securities Studio Award, London, UK; Melvill Nettleship Prize for Figure Composition, UCL, London; Art OMI artist residency, New York, USA; Young Painter Award, Lahore Arts Council, Pakistan; ROSL Travel Scholarship: Residency at Hospital Field, Scotland, UK;   Vasl Residency (Triangle Arts Trust), Karachi, Pakistan; International Artist Camp, George Kyet Foundation, Sri Lanka. His work is in the collection of the Tate, UK; British Museum UK; Victoria and Albert Museum UK; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; Metropolitan Museum NYC; Asia Pacific Museum, USA; Rose Art museum, USA;  Queensland Art Gallery Australia; Qatar Museums, Qatar; Burger Collection Hong Kong; Creative Cities Collection, Beijing; Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, New Delhi, India; Devi Art Foundation, Delhi, India; Samdani Foundation, Dhaka; Durjoy Foundation, Dhaka ; Kemal Lazar Foundation, Tunisia, Islamabad Airport, Pakistan.

Maheen Kazim
Maheen Kazim is a Pakistani textile designer and an educator living and working in Lahore, Pakistan. She has gained experience teaching weave design at Pakistan institute of fashion and design, where she was a Lecturer. She maintains a design studio and handloom unit where she creates artisanal weavings using a variety of materials and colour palettes. Swatches are used to create textile patterns for woven production, used as further investigations for other artworks, or they are simply artworks unto themselves.
She started working on a project where she wanted to engage closely with the local community weavers in Kasur (town in outskirts of Lahore). The town used to be hub of handlooms once but with the passage of time most of the handloom weavers have left the centuries old craft and moved towards power looms or other businesses due to the economic strains and other reasons. It’s been almost 4 years where she not only engaged local weavers but also inspired the young people to learn the craft. The handloom unit consists of a team of 12 weavers, a master weaver and a warper.  She has been exploring different possibilities in weave with the help of theses local weavers.
Schooled in Lahore, she holds a Bachelor’s in Textile Design from Pakistan institute of fashion and design Lahore. She is a creative design talent alongside with a technical understanding of fabrics, she developed her passion and flair for weave, print and hand embroidery.

Dieses Forschungsprojekt wurde teilweise von der Universität für Angewandte Kunst finanziert.