Nayab Shaikh
Anusha Khawajah Shahid highlights the lives of village women in her installation at the Karachi Biannale 2024. This is part of our ongoing features on the KB24.
In the heart of Karachi, where the city hums with life, the Karachi Biennale 2024 unfolds like a canvas, steeped in the vibrancy of art, stories, and voices that rise from this megapolis. This year’s theme is RIZQ | RISK, a call to consider not just the food on our plates, but the fragile balance in the lives of those who bring it to us. Among the artists threading their way into the soul of the Biennale is Anusha Khawajah Shahid, who won the KB24 EBM Emerging Artist Prize for her installation ‘Threads of Nurture’ under the sub theme Hawah’s Garden.
Anusha, born and raised in Saudi Arabia and currently residing in Lahore, Pakistan, is an emerging visual artist and a graduate of NCA, Lahore. Her body of work is shaped by her personal experiences, capturing the complex emotions of uprootedness, geographical dislocation and the inability to find a stable ground to thread the link between one's culture and identity. Anusha brings to life the unspoken stories of South Asian women from rural areas who—though physically grounded—remain socially invisible. Their hands weave the fabric of life, not just for their families, but for their entire communities.
At the heart of her installation is a charpai, a traditional bed handwoven by women. For Anusha, a charpai represents a nexus of cultural identity and communal life. Historically, these beds have been a staple in South Asian households, often found in courtyards where families gather to share stories, laughter, and meals. They have served as makeshift spaces for socializing, nurturing, and connecting across generations. By integrating this beloved object into her artwork, Anusha elevates the charpai from an everyday item to a powerful symbol of togetherness that is welcomed and protected by the women in our communities.
This installation is more than a visual tribute. It’s an invitation. Anusha’s installation invites the public to sit, weave, and become a part of the fabric of her work. With scraps of cloth, visitors add their touch, weaving into the framework of the empty charpai. It is an act of togetherness, a shared ritual of creation, where every piece of cloth added becomes a whisper, a memory, a piece of a larger story.
This installation is more than a visual tribute. It’s an invitation. Anusha’s installation invites the public to sit, weave, and become a part of the fabric of her work.
These women, whose stories Anusha so tenderly weaves into her art, are the lifeblood of their families. They tend to the fields, grind the grain, patch together meals from the earth, all while weaving baskets, doing embroidery, or creating crafts that bring in extra income. They are the keepers of ancient knowledge, yet their work often slips unnoticed through the cracks of society.
Anusha’s work is a tribute to these women, their strength, and their resilience. Using 70% sustainable and 30% biodegradable materials, she further highlights the environmental connection these women have with the land—a symbiotic relationship of care and nourishment.
At Bagh Ibn-e-Qasim, where her installation stands under the open sky, one feels a quiet beauty. The air fills with something ancient, something timeless. The untold stories of women come alive, threads that stretch from the past into the present, binding us all together in the rhythm of life.
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