Hira Nabi
While focusing on the delicate interplay between life and decay, Hira Nabi’s ongoing project How to Love a Tree explores vanishing ecosystems and the rich biodiversity of Pakistan. By combining different mediums, such as multichannel video, found ceramics, and textile pieces, the artist looks into deep-rooted connections between an individual and nature. Nabi undertakes several expeditions to the blue pine forests surrounding the town of Murree, and the Galiyat region, where the former British hill stations, a relic of the colonial era, play an integral role in the landscape. These once-thriving territories are now crumbling under centuries of continuous exploitation, leaving behind shreds of evidence of a painful past intertwined with capitalist expansion.
Revealing the traces left by colonial rule and the ongoing degradation of these ecosystems, the work also accentuates the harsh realities faced by locals. Colonial and post-colonial governments took control of the lands with violence and strict laws, creating a cycle of destruction. During harsh winters and desperate times, villagers have been forced to cut ancient trees just to survive. Nabi’s rubbings from these damaged trees serve as a silent witness to the suffering of both the land and the people, showing their shared struggle and resilience. In her textile cyanotypes and silkscreens, the artist ponders over time, memory, disappearance and extinction, and an uncertain future.
Ukrainian land also has a history of colonial transformations. Under Stalin’s regime and in the decades that followed, the different environments were reshaped to increase the productivity of the land. The policy included planting forest belts around fields, building canals and irrigation systems that disrupted steppe biomes, and constructing numerous massive hydroelectric plants and reservoirs on the Dnipro River. During Russia’s war against Ukraine, many of these straight lines of forests have been transformed into trenches and fortifications amid ongoing combat in the eastern and southern regions. And in 2023, one of the Soviet-era dams holding back a huge water reservoir was destroyed by Russian military forces, setting a precedent for ecocide.
While focusing on the delicate interplay between life and decay, Hira Nabi’s ongoing project How to Love a Tree explores vanishing ecosystems and the rich biodiversity of Pakistan. By combining different mediums, such as multichannel video, found ceramics, and textile pieces, the artist looks into deep-rooted connections between an individual and nature. Nabi undertakes several expeditions to the blue pine forests surrounding the town of Murree, and the Galiyat region, where the former British hill stations, a relic of the colonial era, play an integral role in the landscape. These once-thriving territories are now crumbling under centuries of continuous exploitation, leaving behind shreds of evidence of a painful past intertwined with capitalist expansion.
Revealing the traces left by colonial rule and the ongoing degradation of these ecosystems, the work also accentuates the harsh realities faced by locals. Colonial and post-colonial governments took control of the lands with violence and strict laws, creating a cycle of destruction. During harsh winters and desperate times, villagers have been forced to cut ancient trees just to survive. Nabi’s rubbings from these damaged trees serve as a silent witness to the suffering of both the land and the people, showing their shared struggle and resilience. In her textile cyanotypes and silkscreens, the artist ponders over time, memory, disappearance and extinction, and an uncertain future.
Ukrainian land also has a history of colonial transformations. Under Stalin’s regime and in the decades that followed, the different environments were reshaped to increase the productivity of the land. The policy included planting forest belts around fields, building canals and irrigation systems that disrupted steppe biomes, and constructing numerous massive hydroelectric plants and reservoirs on the Dnipro River. During Russia’s war against Ukraine, many of these straight lines of forests have been transformed into trenches and fortifications amid ongoing combat in the eastern and southern regions. And in 2023, one of the Soviet-era dams holding back a huge water reservoir was destroyed by Russian military forces, setting a precedent for ecocide.
Special prize
Commenting on Hira Nabi as the winner of the special prize, the Jury said:
“Hira Nabi’s installation that uses floating textiles, video projections and a sonic scape is an important contribution to artistic practices that address decolonial ecology. The installation employs fragmentation as methodology — both visually and sonically — inviting us to reflect on the multiple cracks and rubble that emerges from our continuous destruction of the environment. This work poetically reminds us that many of the conflicts we experience today are related to the extractivist practices towards our environment.”
