In August 2007, Pakistan celebrated its 60th birthday in style, unveiling the long awaited National Art Gallery (NAG) in Islamabad, proudly projecting contemporary Pakistani art onto the world stage. Salima Hashmi, dean of the School of Visual Arts at Beaconhouse National University, was one of 12 independent curators responsible for the institution’s inaugural program of thematic exhibits, “Moving Ahead.”

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Hashmi grappled with the contested terrain of sculpture in her exhibition, “An Intensity of Space and Substance.” Sculpture has long attracted the ire of Pakistan’s conservatives who cite its potential for idolatry against the strictures of Islam. Jamil Baloch’s dramatic group of black shrouded figures, which Hashmi defiantly placed outside the Gallery’s entrance, was the first work visitors encountered. Reflecting on the historic moment, Hashmi says, “Looking at 60 years of art at the National Art Gallery was a very buoyant moment. It was a revelation in that the outrageous was, in fact, quite palatable for audiences and the artists felt proud for having stayed the course.” Much of the Gallery’s success might be attributed to Hashmi herself, who has worked tirelessly to mentor and foster budding artists in Pakistan and has long served as a passionate and articulate advocate for their art nationally and internationally.

The celebratory mood, however, did not last long. Faced with growing fundamentalist violence, declining popularity and growing demands from political opponents for a return to proper constitutional process, President General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency on November 3. A subsequent crackdown on civil liberties and political opposition resulted in widespread protests and arrests of numerous political activists; Hashmi herself was briefly placed under house arrest. Though the state of emergency was eventually lifted, the shocking assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi on December 27 resulted in more unrest and riots. Hashmi warns, “A deathly silence has descended on the whole country. Response will come slowly,

In August 2007, Pakistan celebrated its 60th birthday in style, unveiling the long awaited National Art Gallery (NAG) in Islamabad, proudly projecting contemporary Pakistani art onto the world stage. Salima Hashmi, dean of the School of Visual Arts at Beaconhouse National University, was one of 12 independent curators responsible for the institution’s inaugural program of thematic exhibits, “Moving Ahead.”

Never one to shy away from a challenge, Hashmi grappled with  the contested terrain of sculpture in her exhibition, “An Intensity of Space and Substance.” Sculpture has long attracted the ire of Pakistan’s conservatives who cite its potential for idolatry against the strictures of Islam. Jamil Baloch’s dramatic group of black shrouded figures, which Hashmi defiantly placed outside the Gallery’s entrance, was the first work visitors encountered. Reflecting on the historic moment, Hashmi says, “Looking at 60 years of art at the National Art Gallery was a very buoyant moment. It was a revelation in that the outrageous was, in fact, quite palatable for audiences and the artists felt proud for having stayed the course.” Much of the Gallery’s success might be attributed to Hashmi herself, who has worked tirelessly to mentor and foster budding artists in Pakistan and has long served as a passionate and articulate advocate for their art nationally and internationally.

The celebratory mood, however, did not last long. Faced with growing fundamentalist violence, declining popularity and growing demands from political opponents for a return to proper constitutional process, President General Pervez Musharraf declared a state of emergency on November 3. A subsequent crackdown on civil liberties and political opposition resulted in widespread protests and arrests of numerous political activists; Hashmi herself was briefly placed under house arrest. Though the state of emergency was eventually lifted, the shocking assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto at a campaign rally in Rawalpindi on December 27 resulted in more unrest and riots. Hashmi warns, “A deathly silence has descended on the whole country. Response will come slowly, as the implications seep in. So many artists I have spoken to recently can’t quite predict how this will alter their work. But the effects will be apparent in time with the terrible realization of what has been destroyed in us.”

Though fazed by the suddenness of recent events, Hashmi is no stranger to civil strife. Born in New Delhi in 1942, she attributes her strong political conscience and commitment to art and culture to the example set by her parents: the legendary Urdu poet and marxist Faiz Ahmed Faiz, often imprisoned for his political views, and Alys Faiz, a respected British journalist, social activist and humanitarian. Following the Partition of India in 1947, Hashmi’s family relocated to Lahore, where she grew up. After studying design at the city’s National College of Arts (NCA), Hashmi left for England in the early 1960s, studying at the Bath Academy of Art in Corsham and graduating in 1965 with a diploma in art education. 

An accomplished painter, Hashmi is dedicated to furthering art education in Pakistan, following in the footsteps of pioneers like Anna Molka Ahmed, Esther Rahim and Zubaida Agha—painters who helped establish much needed arts infrastructure such as university art departments and city arts councils in the 1950s. In 1970, Hashmi joined the faculty of fine arts at NCA, where she taught for 31 years (and served as principal from 1995-99), mentoring many of Pakistan’s best-known contemporary artists. In her current position at Beaconhouse, she is working to expand the scope of the arts curriculum beyond studio practice, forging strong ties with regional peers and shaping another generation of artists, aided by many of her former students.

“I think the strength of Pakistani art lies in the commonly held notion that the academy is a ‘happening’ place,” says Hashmi. “NCA’s milieu shielded us from the vagaries of Pakistan’s political horrors. Lying low in the Zia-ul-Haq years, keeping the dissent going while pretending to teach! Having a small group of like-minded artists close at hand. Art was a subversive space from which to speak and not as vulnerable as poetry and journalism, which came under the baleful eye of the state.” 

General Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq’s regime (1977-88), marked by a program to “Islamize” Pakistan, was particularly oppressive to women. Hashmi joined the many women artists and activists who resisted measures including the infamous 1979 Hudood Ordinance, a strict enforcement of Islamic Shari’a law under which hundreds of raped women were punished for having committed adultery. Hashmi remains an unswerving feminist, publishing the landmark study Unveiling the Visible: Lives and Works of Women Artists of Pakistan in 2002.

Hashmi’s curatorial career began with Islamabad’s Rohtas Gallery, a commercial space she opened in 1981 with the architect Naeem Pasha, followed in 2001 by a second branch, Rohtas II in Lahore. With little existing public and private arts infrastructure, these spaces emerged as important venues for experimentation. Hashmi dryly notes, “The running joke among artists is that, ‘you make your reputation at Rohtas, but no money.’”

Hashmi’s latest project is “Desperately Seeking Paradise,” an exhibition she was invited to curate for Art Dubai 2008, in position to become a market linchpin in the region after premiering in early 2007 as the Gulf Art Fair. Hesitant at first about the commercial context, she decided to use the high-profile opportunity to mount an exhibition that challenges commonly held stereotypes about Pakistan and takes stock of Pakistani contemporary art after what has been a rollercoaster year. The deteriorating political climate and the bureaucratic complacency that has settled over the National Art Gallery since its opening have raised the stakes significantly.

Hashmi borrowed her exhibition title from British Muslim intellectual Ziauddin Sardar’s witty travelogue of 2004, an account of his physical and spiritual journey through the many philosophies, sects and countries of the Muslim world. “I was drawn to Sardar’s book because its ‘insider view’ was funny, serious, thoughtful, subversive and frustrated all at once, a parallel to the many worlds and feelings that we, as Muslims, regardless of whether we embrace that label or not, are straddling right now,” recalls Hashmi. Sardar’s at times futile quest to reconcile liberal ideals with an increasingly authoritarian and fundamentalist Islamic world also reads as an allegory for the history of Pakistan. Originally envisioned as a democratic homeland for South Asia’s Muslims, Pakistan has faced similar struggles. Paradise is furthermore an apt lens through which to examine Dubai, a manufactured desert oasis of oil wealth, luxury tourism and, recently, art. For many in South Asia, Dubai has long been the mythical but elusive land of opportunity where unlimited promise hides harsh realities.

The exhibition draws its tenor from the restlessness and humor of Sardar’s book. It features large-scale figurative paintings such as Ali Raza’s Your Body is an Extension (2008), which addresses the growing militarization of Pakistani society by layering images sourced from various media, and a pair of menacing but colorful dreamscapes by Anwar Saeed. Also included are Farida Batool’s lenticular print of the destruction caused in Lahore during February 2006 riots protesting the infamous Prophet Muhammad cartoons that appeared in a Danish newspaper; London-based Faiza Butt’s mixed-media painting of a bearded young British Muslim man hanging out with the Gallagher brothers from the Britpop band Oasis; and an installation of Perspex cubes incorporating Mohammad Ali Talpur’s dense linear abstractions.

Hashmi has also commissioned projects to respond to the fair’s host city and its venue, the Madinat Jumeirah, a luxury resort complex crisscrossed by man-made canals. Huma Mulji’s Arabian Delight (2008), an oversized suitcase partially packed with an actual stuffed camel, is a wry take on the culture and cultural effects of travel and migration. Mulji purchased the carcass during the recent Eid ul Adha celebration (which marks the end of Haj and commemorates the prophet Abraham’s sacrifice of his only son Isaac through the ritual killing of cloven hoofed animals). For Hashmi the camel is a rich metaphor; a cliché of the exotic Arabian Desert both revered and reproduced as kitsch souvenir, it equally connotes migration, endurance and overcoming adversity. The camel is also native to the desert and arid plains that surround Mulji’s hometown of Karachi and her sculpture emphasizes the millennia-long history of trade and cultural exchange between the two regions.