Hajra Waheed
Hajra Waheed was born in 1980 in Calgary
She lives and works in Montréal
Hajra Waheed’s multidisciplinary practice ranges from painting and drawing to video, sound, sculpture and installation. Amongst other issues, she explores the connections between security, surveillance and the covert networks of power that structure human lives. Her practice also addresses the traumas and alienation of displaced subjects affected by legacies of colonial and state violence. Characterized by a distinct visual language and unique poetic approach, her works often use the ordinary as a means to convey the profound, and landscape as a medium to transpose human struggle and a radical politics of resistance and resilience.
Waheed‘s works has been presented in solo exhibitions at Hum, Portikus, Frankfurt (2020); Hold Everything Dear, The Power Plant, Toronto (2019); Hajra Waheed : The Video Installation Project, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (2017); The Cyphers, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK (2016) ; Still Against the Sky, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (2015) ; Asylum in The Sea, Fonderie Darling, Montréal.
She participated in exhibitions worldwide including: Globale Resistance, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2020); Lahore Biennial 02, Pakistan (2020); Pushing Paper: Contemporary Drawing from 1970 to Now, British Museum, London (2019); VIVA ARTE VIVA, 57th Venice Biennale (2017); 11th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea (2016); La Biennale de Montréal, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Quebec (2014); Lines of Control, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Ithaca, NY (2012) and (In) The First Circle, Antoni Tapies Foundation, Barcelona (2012).
She was a finalist for the 2016 Sobey Art Award and received the 2014 Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award for outstanding achievement as a mid-career artist. In 2022 she was the recipient of the Outstanding Achievement Award by the Hnatyshyn Foundation.
Waheed’s works can be found in permanent collections including MOMA, New York; British Museum, London; the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Art Institute of Chicago; Burger Collection, Zurich/Hong Kong and Devi Art Foundation, New Delhi.
Hum II (2023), Multichannel Sound Installation – Installation view Sharjah Biennial 15, © Courtesy of the Artist
Hum II (2023), Multichannel Sound Installation – Installation view Sharjah Biennial 15, © Courtesy of the Artist
Hum II (2023), Multichannel Sound Installation – Installation view Sharjah Biennial 15, © Courtesy of the Artist
Hum II (2023), Multichannel Sound Installation – Installation view Sharjah Biennial 15, © Courtesy of the Artist
Hum, 2020 - Multi-channel sound installation - Installation view, Portikus, Frankfurt, 2020 © Diana Pfammatter
Hum, 2020 - Multi-channel sound installation - Installation view, Portikus, Frankfurt, 2020 © Diana Pfammatter
Hum, 2020 - Multi-channel sound installation - Installation view, Lahore Biennale, 2020
Hold Everything Dear, 2019 - Exhibition View at Power Plant, Toronto, © photo Toni Hafkenschied
Walls, Ladders and Roads, 2019 - Installation of Glazed Porcelain Sculptures - Detail
Walls, Ladders and Roads, 2019 - Installation of Glazed Porcelain Sculptures - Detail
Walls, Ladders and Roads, 2019 - Installation of Glazed Porcelain Sculptures - Detail
Hold Everything Dear, 2019 - Exhibition View at Power Plant, Toronto, © photo Toni Hafkenschied
How long does it take moonlight to reach us ? Just over one second. And Sunlight ? Eight minutes., 2019 - Sunned paper
Hold Everything Dear, 2019 - Exhibition View at Power Plant, Toronto, © photo Toni Hafkenschied
Studies for a Starry Night, 1-94, 2019 - Glazed Porcelain and Stoneware
Tidal Turn 1-2, 2019 - Glazed Stoneware
Hold Everything Dear, 2019 - Exhibition View at Power Plant, Toronto, © photo Toni Hafkenschied
Landscape 1-9, 2019 - Oil on Tin
Landscape 1-9, 2019 - Oil on Tin - Detail
Untitled, 2019 - Etching and cut Photograph on Japanese paper
Untitled 1-18, 2019 - Series of 18 works on paper - Cut photograph, letraset on paper - Detail
Untitled 1-18, 2019 - Series of 18 works on paper - Cut photograph, letraset on paper - Detail
Letters 1-8, 2019 - Ink on paper
Letters 1-8, 2019 - Ink on paper - Detail 6/8
The Spiral, 2019 - HD Video - Installation View, The Power Plant, Toronto, 2019
Our Naufrage, 1-10, 2014 - Installation View, 57th Venice Biennale, 2017, © Francesco Galli
Our Naufrage, 1-10, 2014 - Gouache on Massonite mounted in Brass & Wood - Detail
A Short Film 1-321, 2014 - Installation View, 57th Venice Biennale, 2017 © Francesco Galli
A Short Film 1-321, 2014 - Installation View, 57th Venice Biennale, 2017 © Francesco Galli
A Short Film 1-321, 2014 - Installation Detail from Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, 2014
A Short Film, 2014 - Installation Detail, Musée d'art contemporain, Montréal, 2014
Video Installation Project 1-10, 2011-2013 - Installation View, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, 2017, photo © Paul Litherland
Video Installation Project 1-10: Hut 1, 2011-2013 - Video Still
The ARD : Study for a Portrait 1-28, 2018 - Installation View, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE, 2018, photo © Mohamed Somji
The ARD : Study for a Portrait 1-28, 2018 - Installation View, Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai, UAE, 2018, photo © Mohamed Somji
The ARD : Study for a Portrait 1-28, 15/28, 2018 - Collage, cut photographs, mylar, archive tape, xylene transfer, ink on graph paper
The ARD : Study for a Portrait 1-28, 1/28, 2018 - Collage, cut photographs, mylar, archival tape, xylene transfer, ink on graph paper
The ARD : Study for a Portrait 1-28, 14/28, 2018 - Collage, cut photographs, mylar, archive tape, xylene transfer, ink on graph paper
Strata 1-24, 2017 & Untitled (Map), 2016 - Installation View, McMullen Museum of Art, Boston, 2020
Sea Change – Chapter 1 : Character 1, In the Rough, 2016 - Installation View, Mosaic Room, London, photo © Vipul Sangoi
Untitled (MAP), 2016 - Infographic print on Vellum - Details
1 470.51 - 1673.86m, 1-4, 2016 - Series of 4 works on paper - Folded Wax Paper and Cut Mylar
The Cyphers 1-18, 2016 - Installation View, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK, 2016, photo © Colin Davidson
The Cyphers 1-18, 2016 - Installation View, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK, 2016, photo © Colin Davidson
The Cyphers 1-18, 2016 - Detail 13/18 & Found Object photo © Colin Davidson
Study for a falling object, 2016 - Installation View, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK, 2016, photo © Colin Davidson
Study for a falling object, 2016 - Installation View, BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK, 2016, photo © Colin Davidson
Study for a falling object, 2016 - Video HD - Video Still
Still Against the Sky 1-3, 2016 - Etched Transfer Paper - Detail
KH-21, 2014 - Installation View, La Biennale de Montréal, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, 2015, photo ©Sabina Rak
KH-21, 2014 - Sound Sculpture and 32 works on paper - Detail
Plume 1-3, 2019 - Detail 1/3 - Cut photograph and Archival Tape on Graph Paper
Plume 1-3, 2019 - Detail 2/3 - Cut photograph and Archival Tape on Graph Paper
Plume 1-3, 2019 - Detail 3/3 - Cut photograph and Archival Tape on Graph Paper