Madiha Aijaz

Each season, CAG releases a series of Video Visits that offer short takes on our exhibitions. Presented in five languages — English, French, Mandarin, Spanish and Urdu — these videos present a variety of perspectives on the work of Madiha Aijaz, Althea Thauberger, and Julian Yi-Zhong Hou.

### English Video Visits
[Madiha Aijaz: Memorial for the lost pages](https://vimeo.com/454176959)
[Althea Thauberger: Pagal Pagal Pagal Pagal Filmy Duniya](https://vimeo.com/454174583)
[Julian Yi-Zhong Hou: Grass Drama](https://vimeo.com/454827760)

### Urdu Video Visits
[Madiha Aijaz: Memorial for the lost pages](https://vimeo.com/451275065)
[Althea Thauberger: Pagal Pagal Pagal Pagal Filmy Duniya](https://vimeo.com/451271843)
[Julian Yi-Zhong Hou: Grass Drama](https://vimeo.com/451272233)

### Visites vidéo en français
[Madiha Aijaz: Memorial for the lost pages](https://vimeo.com/451234395)
[Althea Thauberger: Pagal Pagal Pagal Pagal Filmy Duniya](https://vimeo.com/451228039)
[Julian Yi-Zhong Hou: Grass Drama](https://vimeo.com/451231420)

### Visitas de video en español
[Madiha Aijaz: Memorial for the lost pages](https://vimeo.com/451269047)
[Althea Thauberger: Pagal Pagal Pagal Pagal Filmy Duniya](https://vimeo.com/451263446)
[Julian Yi-Zhong Hou: Grass Drama](https://vimeo.com/451266649)

### 普通话视频之旅
[Madiha Aijaz: Memorial for the lost pages](https://vimeo.com/451262875)
[Althea Thauberger: Pagal Pagal Pagal Pagal Filmy Duniya](https://vimeo.com/451259370)
[Julian Yi-Zhong Hou: Grass Drama](https://vimeo.com/451260202)


thumbnail_Screenshot 2022-05-27 133300.png

Screenshot 2022-05-27 133300.png

Summer 2020

Video Visits

*Memorial for the lost pages* presents the intimate videos and photographs of Madiha Aijaz, bringing together the artist’s works in Canada for the first time. Aijaz was based in Karachi, Pakistan, and her work is as complex and layered as the city in which she lived, addressing issues of language and identity, longing and loss, public space and colonial legacies. Her videos explore Karachi’s historic and mostly deserted public libraries. Alongside these works are a series of photographs that examine tensions between awaking desire and admissible sexuality in, as Aijaz described, “contested, often fractured landscapes.” Offsite at Yaletown-Roundhouse Station, another photographic series describes the country’s most famous rail line, the Khyber Mail. Together, Aijaz’s photographs and videos call attention to shared spaces that are seemingly peripheral to contemporary life. They languish from a neglect that threatens their continued existence. Yet, as the artist’s steadfast and often tender camerawork suggests, these spaces persist. 

Co-curated by Kimberly Phillips and Zarmeene Shah

This exhibition is presented in partnership with Capture Photography Festival. Work at Yaletown-Roundhouse Station is presented in partnership with the Canada Line Public Art Program, InTransit BC.


### Biographies

Madiha Aijaz was a filmmaker and photographer based in Karachi, Pakistan. Her book on Hindu temples, *Call to Conscience*, was published in 2014. Recent exhibitions include the Karachi Biennale, Pakistan (2017); 10th International Documentary & Short Film Festival of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, India (2017); IAWRT Asian Women’s Film Festival, New Delhi (2015); and Urban Flux Film Festival, Johannesburg (2012). Aijaz was an Assistant Professor at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture and received an MFA in Photography from Parsons with a Fulbright Scholarship.

Zarmeene Shah is an independent curator and critic currently based in Karachi, Pakistan. Focusing on contemporary art and continental and semiotic theory, she is particularly interested in new media, the body, and the political in art. Shah attained an undergraduate degree in Fine Art from the Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture in Karachi, followed by an MA in Critical & Curatorial Studies from Columbia University as a Fulbright Scholar (2010). She was Curator-at-Large for the Karachi Biennale in 2017, and also currently serves as Head of the Liberal Arts Program at the Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture.


ProgramGuideSummer2020.pdf

ExhibitionGuideMadihaAijaz.pdf

A photograph of a train employee in a train vestibule. They wear a green uniform with gold insignia and a grey wool hat. They look down, away from the camera, while light from a window glows behind. 

thumbnail_001 HEADER - Aijaz.jpg

001 HEADER - Aijaz.jpg

Seven framed photographs and two monitors hang on two gallery walls. The left wall has two monitors and three photographs, the right wall has four photographs. Two benches sit in front.

thumbnail_01-MadihaAijaz-2020.jpg

01-MadihaAijaz-2020.jpg

Four framed photographs and two monitors hang on two walls. The left wall has one photograph and the right wall has three photographs and two monitors. One bench sits in the middle of the room.

thumbnail_02-MadihaAijaz-2020.jpg

02-MadihaAijaz-2020.jpg

Four framed photographs and one monitor hang on two walls. On the left wall there are four framed photographs, on the right wall there is one monitor. Two benches sit in the middle of the room.

thumbnail_03-MadihaAijaz-2020.jpg

03-MadihaAijaz-2020.jpg

Four framed photographs hang horizontally on the wall of the gallery. Three photographs are grouped together on the right, the fourth sits alone on the left. The frames of the photographs are white.

Madiha Aijaz

Exhibitions

Talks & Events