Curatorial Note

Collaboration between galleries, curators and other artistic networks are widening, deepening and becoming more potent. This has been especially noticeable during the pandemic we have been experiencing. The challenge for artists is continuing to work, exhibit and solicit the attention of their audiences.

Rohtas Gallery and Rohtas 2 have long cultivated links between artists across borders, across disciplines and across institutions. Thus begins this collaboration with ‘Khamsa’, an independent initiative of Ambereen Karamat of White Turban who has started an online platform for South Asian artists. Khamsa caters for emerging and established artists of the region bringing them to a wider audience.

Shah Abdullah Alamee’s practice spreads across the written word and the many essences contained in both poetry and its practitioners, which include Iqbal, Rumi, Ghalib, Khusro and Faiz.

He selects for this exhibit the muse of the poet Faiz, Alys, who waits in the wings, giving sustenance and strength. Her letters to her husband Faiz in jail have become legendary narrations of courage and hope. Thus “Our hearts, ever seeking” looks to the poet’s heart as its starting point.