In Conversation

Hajra Waheed and Akansha Rastogi

Part of The Elemental You exhibition

Date: 15 Dec 24

Time: 6.00pm

Location: KNMA Saket

Join artist Hajra Waheed and curator Akansha Rastogi for a conversation on the occasion of the exhibition The Elemental You. Characterized by a distinct visual language and unique poetic approach, Hajra Waheed’s works often use the ordinary as a means to convey the profound, and landscape as a medium to transpose human struggle and a radical politics of resistance and resilience. Her practice ranges from painting and drawing to video, sound, sculpture and installation often exploring the connections and relationships between the natural world and our collective future. The conversation will address how the artist approaches both medium and material to reflect on the broader cultural and political forces shaping and reshaping our world today.

Hajra Waheed (b. 1980) currently lives and works between Jogja, Indonesia and Montreal, Canada. Her multidisciplinary practice addresses amongst other issues, the nexus between security, surveillance and the covert networks of power that structure lives, while also addressing the traumas and alienation of displaced persons affected by legacies of colonial and state violence.

Recent exhibitions worldwide include: Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin (2024); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2024); Sharjah Biennial 15, Sharjah (2023); Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2023); State of Concept, Athens (2023); CAM St. Louis, Missouri (2023); PHI Foundation, Montreal (2021); Portikus, Frankfurt (2020); Lahore Biennial 02, Pakistan (2020); Centre Pompidou, Paris (2020); British Museum, London (2019); The Power Plant, Toronto (2019); 57th Venice Biennale, Venice (2017); 11th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2016); BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2016); KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2015); La Biennale de Montréal, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Quebec (2014); Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY (2012) and Antoni Tapies Foundation, Barcelona, ES (2012).

She was recipient of the Sharjah Biennial 15 Prize (2023), Hnatyshyn Foundation Award (2022), Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award (2014) for outstanding achievement as a mid-career artist, and a finalist for the Sobey Art Award (2016). Waheed’s works can be found in permanent collections, including: MOMA, New York; British Museum, London; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Art Institute of Chicago; Burger Collection, Zurich/Hong Kong and Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi.

Akansha Rastogi is Senior Curator of Exhibitions and Programming at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) in New Delhi, India. She has curated the recent exhibition ‘The Elemental You’ at KNMA. Rastogi has been part of the core instituting team of the museum since 2011. As a creative practitioner, she is the founding member of artist collective WALA (formed in 2009), and is intensely involved with many artists-led initiatives and forums in New Delhi.