exhibition
An art exhibition that addresses the disjuncture between theory and practice within academia is called Investigative Aesthetics. It offers a space where sophisticated artworks generate powerful new insights and where the creative process remains just as important as expressive abilities or the abstract knowledge of objects.
Recently, Koel Gallery brought together the work of nine recent graduates from the MPhil in Art and Design (Graduate Programme) at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture, Karachi.
Presented by Zarmeene Shah, an independent curator, writer and academic, the exhibition showcased diverse bodies of work rooted in the idea of practice as research and research as practice. As curator, Zarmeene Shah encourages both visitors and hosts to reimagine the exhibition space as one where knowledge is collectively produced and exchanged.
To understand the critical foundation of such an exhibition, one might turn to Desmond Bell’s article, ‘The Primacy of Practice? Critical Sources for Making Sense of the Theory–Practice Divide in Film and Visual Studies’. Bell criticises the Western academy for being overly self-indulgent and less interested in addressing the power hierarchies of society. Drawing comparisons with the early Soviet era and the Weimar period - both moments when institutions harmoniously integrated theory, social critique and cultural practice - he identifies the existing dyspraxia within these realms as being closely tied to the historical division between head and hand. Bell argues that we must look beyond current constellations of ‘theory’ to find a model for critically informed practice - a missing link that the MPhil (Graduate Programme) at IVS actively seeks to address.
Building on this foundation, the diverse body of works showcased in Investigative Aesthetics covered a range of concerns - from the personal to the political - and connected deeply with ideas of space, materiality, history, culture, society, philosophy, psychology and ideology. Emerging from intra-disciplinary, practice-based research, these works blend theoria, praxis and techne, offering knowledge that is both reflective and expressive.
This ethos is reflected in the individual works. Halah’s deeply engaging performative video projections, for instance, became channels through which she communicates with different versions of herself - conjured from a lost future and an unseen past. Her gestures of connection and engagement allow self and other to flow seamlessly together.
In contrast, Shamama’s prints recontextualise her relationship with social structures, examining the notion of shelter - both as a physical space and a mental construct shaped by social and interpersonal experiences. By exploring her home, the market and various inhabited spaces, she deconstructs the idea of shelter to recreate it anew.
Similarly, Ghania reimagines her identity as a creative thinker - trained in architecture and inspired by phenomenology. Her drawings uncover unseen forces at play through a study of visual references. Mehreen, on the other hand, seeks to decolonise inner and outer relationships with space, time and matter, inviting viewers to experience multiplicity within her installation.
Transitioning from the abstract to the communal, the collagraph prints depicting an animated neighbourhood present a reimagined Nazimabad - one you could almost hop through. What was once a place marked by violence becomes, through Naveed’s practice, a site of liveliness and hope, constructed from oral histories and participatory mapping.
In Sana’s installation, a 2024 graduate, a delicate pillow cover with taarkashi work becomes a vessel for handwritten letters and heirlooms passed down through generations. Through her work, she seeks to unravel the idea of transference. Safdar, in contrast, questions the symbolic role of the dome, opening it to multiple, even conflicting, interpretations that challenge fixed meanings.
Zoya’s work takes a more intimate turn. Wrapping her grandmother’s saree around her waist - a vivid red against a pale surface. With fruit pits arranged across a table, signifying both what remains and what can be. Through this act, she explores the body’s capacity to sustain familial bonds that transcend physical ties. “The graduate programme at IVS enabled me to explore different ways of looking at my art practice, which focuses on family narratives linked to my body. If one is given the freedom to go deep into one’s work, at a certain point research and practice become one and neither can be done without the other,” shares Zoya.
My own work also formed part of this cohort. Through my practice, I sought to unravel the complexities and richness of women’s lives as they navigate both traditional and contemporary roles, particularly through an architectural lens. The photographs, videos and illustrations become a way of storytelling that not only reflects lived experience but also questions the structures that shape it. This required me to consistently demystify domination and to take a normative approach in order to see through our own contradictions. The aim is to practice embodied criticality - where the researcher is not out there to find an answer, but rather to access a different mode of habitation.
Such an approach resonates with the thinking of Jacob Burckhardt, the eminent historian, who argued that art has always been a product of its time and can only be fully understood when mapped against broader cultural, social and literary contexts. In this light, the process itself becomes integral - whether rooted in personal experience or collective memory. Theory, then, texturises practice, binding the two together. In our post-historic moment, even as distinctions between disciplines blur, when art is contextualised in relation to space and time, it retains the transformative power to reshape how we think and perceive the world around us.
The writer is a creative practitioner and researcher. She can be reached at anumnsanaullahgmail.com