Ali Kazim, Untitled (Votive Objects) (2022). Courtesy of the artist and Jhaveri Contemporary. From the Taimur Hassan Collection | Zarina, Tasbih (2011). ©️ Zarina; Image courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York. Photography by Farzad Owrang
Date: Saturday, 27 June 2026
Time: 6 PM GST | 7 PM PST | 3 PM BST
Format: Online
Zoom link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83447247367?pwd=rcftkjtU8omZEt7ftKXSLUK2VZXMPX.1
Open to the public. No pre-registration required
Ishara Art Foundation presents an online talk featuring Urdu Worlds curator Hammad Nasar, artist Ali Kazim, and curator and writer Sarah Burney. Moderated by Sasha Altaf, Director of Ishara, the programme sheds light on the conceptual conversations and material resonances that the exhibition reveals between the practices of Kazim and the late printmaker Zarina.
The discussion explores the artists’ shared sensitivity to language – a lens through which their work has rarely been considered, and which is brought into focus by Urdu Worlds. Two publications that form the nucleus of the exhibition – Kazim’s Alphabet Book | Urdu Qaida and Zarina’s Urdu kay aik so aik mahavray (101 Urdu Proverbs) – serve as key points of departure for the conversation. The speakers will also reflect on the formal confluences within Kazim and Zarina’s practices, investigating their common engagement with printmaking.
Attendees will gain rare first-hand insights of Zarina’s life and work through Burney’s longstanding relationship with the artist as her studio manager for six years, while Nasar and Kazim will trace the evolution of material experimentation and technique in the latter’s practice.
The event is in conjunction with Urdu Worlds, on view at Ishara Art Foundation from 16 January – 8 June 2026.