Seeing, س (Seen) Art Exhibition

Seeing, س (Seen)
30th July to 8th August 2025
Opening Event: 4 PM to 8 PM
Artist Panel Discussion: 6 to 7 PM (Opening Day)
Daily Timings: 10 AM to 4 PM (Closed Saturdays)
Venue: Pakistan National Council of the Arts, Islamabad

Curatorial Note

Art, like the mind, resists linearity. It fragments, reassembles, and expands beyond imposed structures of meaning. It does not unfold in straight lines. It fractures, loops, and shifts, resisting fixed structures of meaning. The exhibition explores the moving image as a space of fluidity and disruption—one that unsettles rigid narratives and embraces ways of seeing and sensing that exist beyond convention.

While artistic traditions have been shaped by institutional preferences for static, easily commodifiable forms, the moving image remains underrecognized, existing at the margins of both contemporary art and cinema. Yet, it is precisely in its resistance to categorization that the moving image finds its radical potential. Fluid, fragmented, and immersive, it mirrors the complexity of thought itself—challenging conventional structures of perception, memory, and time.

This exhibition brings together artists whose works engage with nonlinear storytelling, sensory intensity, repetition, and abstraction. Some explore the dissonance between external reality and internal perception, creating disjointed narratives that resist coherence. Others manipulate time—slowing it down, looping it, or fracturing it—to reflect the way experiences can be processed and understood in multiple ways. These works do not follow singular interpretations; rather, they invite audiences to engage in shifting, open-ended encounters.

At its core, the exhibition highlights the ways in which moving-image art operates outside dominant frameworks, challenging expectations of clarity, order, and resolution. By embracing forms that resist standardization, it offers a space where different ways of perceiving and interpreting the world are not only acknowledged but valued. In a cultural landscape where visibility often hinges on conformity, this exhibition instead embraces the fragmented, the nonlinear, and the fluid.

Here, moving images are not just a medium but a methodology—an alternative way of being, perceiving, and creating. It is an act of reclamation, a refusal to be unseen. Rather than seeking resolution, the exhibition invites viewers to linger in the spaces between—a place where disruptions become possibilities, and new ways of seeing emerge from the fragments.

Sarah Rajper

Curated by

Sarah Rajper

  • Abdul Hadi

    Abdul Haadi is a visual artist based in Khanpur, Pakistan. He holds a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the National College of Arts (NCA) Lahore. His interdisciplinary practice spans painting, video, and animation, often centering on socio-political themes connected to rural and peripheral landscapes in… Read more

  • Farida Batool

    Farida Batool is a Lahore based visual artist exploring Pakistan’s political upheavals and tumultuous history amidst global challenges. She uses her multimedia approach to navigate, as a flaneur, through the multiple issues of identity(ies) in the city, its everydayness and cultural challenges, as well as… Read more

  • Kaiser Irfan

    Kaiser Irfan (b. 1994) is an Irish-Pakistani visual artist based in Lahore, Pakistan. He holds a Master’s degree in Visual Art from the National College of Arts, Lahore. Irfans work investigates a diverse range of subject matter and utilizes different techniques and experimental processes. Irfan… Read more

  • Mahnoor Ali Shah

    Mahnoor Ali Shah (b. 1998) is a visual artist whose work examines the intricacies of emotions and the challenges of motherhood in her work. She received a sculpture degree from the National College of Arts with distinction. Mahnoor uses a wide variety of media, such… Read more

  • M4HK

    M4HK (Mohammad Ali Hyat Khan) is a visual artist currently based in Lahore, Pakistan. M4HK studied Socioeconomics at McGill University, Montreal. A self-taught artist, M4HK enjoys using paints, inks, soft pastels, sprays, and items commonly found in toy stores. His work is heavily inspired by… Read more

  • Rabeeha Adnan

    Rabeeha Adnan (b. Lahore, Pakistan; lives Brooklyn, NY) is an interdisciplinary artist. Central to their work is an exploration of institutional power dynamics and the ‘politics of verticality,’ which informs their ongoing investigation into what they term “choreographies of power” that unfold when individuals encounter… Read more

  • Ujala Khan

    Ujala Khan is a self-taught artist based in Lahore, Pakistan. Beginning her career in 2016, she has displayed her work at exhibitions across Pakistan, as well as in the UK and Dubai. With her bold style, Khan creates works that invite the viewer to engage… Read more

  • Wood & Harrison

    John Wood (born in 1969 in Hong Kong) and Paul Harrison (born in 1966 in Wolverhampton, England) both studied at the Bath College of Higher Education. They have been working together since 1993. Wood and Harrison create video works of minimalist performances, touching on themes… Read more

E-Catalogue