A Note from Risham

I e-met Anne many years ago when she mentioned her possible visit to Lahore with her artist husband Raghu Ji. Then I didn’t know that this was the beginning of a long-term connection that I would always cherish. Perhaps it was a year later that Anne was in Lahore and we were reintroduced through a friend and that is when I invited her over for a talk at the Mariam Dawood School of Visual Arts and Design (MD-SVAD), Beaconhouse National University (BNU), Lahore. A year after that began a conversation about this residency and finally after months of correspondence of going back and forth over email, we all got together in December 2019 in Lahore. It was seven artists/academics with very diverse art practices from Lahore and three artists from Canada – all at SVAD for a very exciting two-week artists’ residency. Considering the time constraint, the artists managed to spend time together, see the city and make work, sharing of which happened at the open day at the end of the two weeks. The Canadian artists also made presentations of their practices for the SVAD students after week one and interacted with students in their studios. What personally moved me the most was the level and depth of bonds that were formed. Just to give an example, seeing Jasdeep’s interest and connection with Kashmiri embroidery, I introduced him to Zafar Sahib, a master embroiderer then in his 80’s. Jasdeep perhaps spent a day with him and was so excited and overwhelmed by the experience that he promised to return in a few months to train with him. It is unfortunate that we lost Zafar Sahib to Covid while Jasdeep was all set to spend a month in Lahore with him. I certainly hope we can make space and find opportunities for such cross-border interactions to see more of this kind of magic to happen again.

Risham Syed
Lahore
June 2021