Hajra Waheed (born in Calgary, Canada; lives in Montreal, Canada) is a multidisciplinary artist whose work ranges from interactive installations to collage, video, sound and sculpture. Among other issues, she explores the nexus between security, surveillance and the covert networks of power that structure lives while also addressing the traumas and alienation of displaced subjects affected by legacies of colonial and state violence. Hajra has participated in exhibitions worldwide, including at the 57th Venice Biennale (2017); the 11th Gwangju Biennale (2016); and at the BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead (2016).
Works
Hajra Waheed at The Power Plant
Location: The Power Plant
Hold Everything Dear takes a single visual form—the spiral—as a poetic starting point to reflect on the processes of upheaval in human experience. For Waheed, the spiral visualizes ascent and descent, growth and decay, evoking both vital forms in nature as well as notions of flux inherent in forced displacement and…
Hajra Waheed at Small Arms
Location: Small Arms Inspection Building (2019)
Strata 1–24 is a series of hand-cut, collaged works that are part of the artist’s ongoing visual novel Sea Change (2011–), which comprises hundreds of works and chronicles the disappearances of nine characters over nine chapters that unfold over the artist’s lifetime. Part of Chapter 1, Strata 1–24 consists of…
Programs
In Conversation: Hajra Waheed, Nabila Abdel Nabi, and Jayne Wilkinson
Location: Harbourfront Centre
On the occasion of Hajra Waheed’s solo exhibition Hold Everything Dear at The Power Plant, her installation at the Biennial, and Canadian Art’s Fall 2019 issue launch, the artist discusses the evolution of her multidisciplinary practice with The Power Plant’s guest curator Nabila Abdel Nabi and Canadian Art Editor-in-Chief Jayne Wilkinson. The…
Toronto Biennial of Art at Nuit Blanche Toronto
Location: Harbourfront Centre
The Toronto Biennial of Art and Harbourfront Centre will present Arin Rungjang’s Ravisara as part of Nuit Blanche Toronto 2019. On view at Harbourfront Centre’s Artport Gallery and vitrines the night of October 5, this multi-channel video installation explores stories and strategies of postcolonial resistance among Thai female immigrants in…