Riverless Water
In this exhibition, Saba Khan investigates the displacement caused by the construction of the Mangla Dam in the 1960s, a project that submerged vast areas of Azad Kashmir’s Mirpur district and triggered one of the largest migrations from Pakistan to the UK. Birmingham became a major destination for the people displaced, and today approximately 70% of the city’s Pakistani community can trace their roots to Mirpur.
The artist has created a new series of paintings about the creation of the dam and the lives of those affected, presented alongside an installation of video interviews featuring Mirpuri elders in Birmingham and London. There is also a series of abstracted drawings of French dams that reflect the politics of dam-building within a wider global context.
Here, the artist expands her long-standing research into the colonial and postcolonial water infrastructures of South Asia. She is keen to uncover the story of large scale developments relying on ordinary lives, which are too often treated as expendable. Her aim for this exhibition is to facilitate understanding and new connections between Birmingham’s communities,
while opening up space for dialogue on climate justice and postcolonial displacement.
The exhibition marks an important new chapter in the practice of London-based Pakistani artist Saba Khan. Although internationally recognised, this exhibition is her first solo presentation in the UK, commissioned by MAC, telling a story of the Mangla Dam and the displacement it caused, marked by loss, trauma and precarity.
Kindly supported by Arts Council England and players of People’s Postcode Lottery.
Curated by Roma Piotrowska, MAC’s Senior Curator