Shaheed / Witness / Kashmir

1986-2016

By Biennale of Sydney

22nd Biennale of Sydney: NIRIN

Shaheed / Witness / Kashmir Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney

Introduction

At Campbelltown Arts Centre and Cockatoo Island, Shaheed / Witness / Kashmir presents the work of nine photographers from Kashmir.

These images were created between 1986-2016 in Indian controlled Kashmir, as its people found themselves pulled between the exhilaration of a struggle for freedom and the violence of its consequences.

"The images were first brought together in the photobook Witness  (2017). "The men who took these pictures had drifted – untrained – into photojournalism, and for the most part seen it as job, not an artistic practice. But to feed the insatiable appetites of the global hunger for images meant going out every-day, forced to look at their own world, and relentlessly pushed to engage with a story that in many ways was also about themselves."

- Sanjay Kak, Artist

About the artists

Meraj Ud Din
Born 1959 in Srinagar, Kashmir
Lives and works in Srinagar

Javeed Shah
Born 1967 in Srinagar, Kashmir
Lives and works in Srinagar

Dar Yasin
Born 1973 in Srinagar, Kashmir
Lives and works in Srinagar

Javed Dar
Born 1975 in Anantnag, Kashmir
Lives and works in Srinagar, Kashmir

Altaf Qadri
Born 1976 in Srinagar, Kashmir
Lives and works in Srinagar

Sumit Dayal
Born 1981 in Srinagar, Kashmir
Lives and works in Kathmandu, Nepal and New Delhi, India

Showkat Nanda
Born 1982 in Baramulla, Kashmir
Lives and works in Baramulla

Syed Shahriyar
Born 1992 in Srinagar, Kashmir
Lives and works in Srinagar

Azaan Shah
Born 1997 in Srinagar, Kashmir
Lives and works in Srinagar

Sanjay Kak
Born 1958 in Pune, India
Lives and works in New Delhi, India

Shaheed / Witness / Kashmir Shaheed / Witness / Kashmir (1986/2016)Biennale of Sydney

1986-2016

In Arabic, Persian & Urdu, the word ‘witness’ translates as ‘Shaheed’. In all three languages, the word also carries a second implication, that of ‘martyr’. It is in the breach offered between these parallel meanings that we locate the photographic work represented in 1986-2016.

Shaheed / Witness / Kashmir Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney

The images here were made in Kashmir between 1986-2016. These were decades of strife that came as the culmination of an older discontent, first against the feudal order of a Maharaja, and after the partition of British India in 1947, with Indian rule.

Shaheed / Witness / Kashmir Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney

This anger and restlessness broke out in mass protests on the street, and by 1990 this had metamorphosed into an armed uprising. This is what Kashmiris call the ‘militancy’.

Shaheed / Witness / Kashmir Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney

The presence of more than half a million Indian soldiers has transformed the Kashmir valley into one of the most militarized zones in the world. The crisis has only deepened in the present. In February 2020, Kashmir’s punishing internet shutdown entered its sixth month.

Shaheed / Witness / Kashmir Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney

This comprehensive installation of work presents a way for audiences to witness a conflict from afar which rages on after three decades in the Kashmir valley. This war has left at least 70,000 dead, 10,000 'missing' and many more carrying trauma from torture, sexual violence and an oppressive military presence that has turned the region into one of the most militarized zones in the world.

Tap to explore

Navigate through the gallery at Campbelltown Arts Centre  and explore the installation 1986-2016.

Shaheed / Witness / Kashmir Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney

1992-2014

In addition to the Campbelltown Arts Centre, displayed on structures at Cockatoo Island are several large-scale works from 1992-2014 .

Shaheed / Witness / Kashmir Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney

Shaheed / Witness / Kashmir Shaheed / Witness / Kashmir (1992/2014)Biennale of Sydney

Shaheed / Witness / Kashmir Installation ImageBiennale of Sydney

Credits: Story

Campbelltown Arts Centre
1986-2016
mixed-media installation, Campbelltown Arts Centre
Courtesy the artists 
Installation design: Itu Chaudhuri Design; Print and digital imaging: Kaushik Ramaswamy

Cockatoo Island
1992-2014 
mixed-media installation
Courtesy the artists: Sumit Dayal, Meraj ud Din, Showkat Nanda 
Installation design: Itu Chaudhuri Design; Print and digital imaging: Kaushik Ramaswamy 
Presented at the 22nd Biennale of Sydney with assistance from NIRIN 500 patrons

Credits: All media
The story featured may in some cases have been created by an independent third party and may not always represent the views of the institutions, listed below, who have supplied the content.
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