Halah Khan

حقیقت (Reality)

Halah Khan

حقیقت (Reality)

Date

2022

Edition Size

unique

Media

Acrylic, Embroidery, Ink, Pearl Cotton Thread, Wool

Paper

Canvas

Format

Artist Book

Dimensions

8 × 8 × 1 in

Pages

16

Location

Karachi, Pakistan

$ 3,200.00

Unavailable


View Collectors

University of California, Irvine (UCI)

Artist Statement on the series of work:

When houses are abandoned, the trees stay and provide shade to the ghosts, they remain to tell stories of the residents, an endless repetition of history that no one wants to explore.
Searching for a home you turn around a corner, you see a light that reminds of a softness, hands, eyes, a love forgotten, a poem lost… humay chahiye tha milna kisi ehd e mehrbaan mein.
Another rain, everything blooms, nothing survives, all that lives is your laughter, forever echoing off the walls of my tired heart, it haunts, I made a home out of her memories, her smile, the sound of her payal. Everything rots, dar o deewar se tapkey hai bayabaan hona…
I brought ruin to my home with words I never said, with love I never gave, I slept through the days and life rushed past me, everything goes to waste, we laugh, we love, we live… purr hai saayee ki tarah mera shabistaan mujh se…

Each book of this series carries a different notion of home, the reality of it, haqeeqat, the home one desires, khuwahish, or a prayer, dua, for the possibility of a home.

Text within حقیقت (Reality):

جہاں سانس لینا محال ہو
where it is difficult to breathe

نہ بولنے کی مجال ہو
forbidden to speak

زمین ہم سے بیزار ہو
the earth growing tired of us

کوئی قہر ہم پہ سوار ہو
some calamity surrounds us

آسماں تنگ پڑتا جا رہا ہے
the sky is shrinking around us

کوئی خوشبو سمیٹے جا رہا ہے
someone is taking away our fragrance…

ارے روکو بہاروں کو
Oh please! stop the departing spring…

کہو یوں ہم سے نہ روٹھو
say, do not turn away from us like this!

ابھی کلیوں کو کھلنا تھا
for the buds were yet to bloom

ابھی ہم کو یوں ملنا تھا
we were yet to meet

کہ ہر گلی کوچے سے مہک ہماری الفت کی اٹھتی ہو
in a way that the scent of our affection would waft through alleyways

کوئی خوش رنگ سی کلی ہماری سانسوں سے اگتی ہو
making vibrant buds sprout from our tangled breaths

ابھی ہم کو یوں ملنا تھا
we were yet to meet…