River Talk II
2nd July 2027
Nusrat Khawaja is an independent researcher, writer, landscaper, award-winning art critic, artist, and curator. Her most recent curatorial project on behalf of the Karachi Biennale Trust was the conception and curation of the art film 39; The River Sublime - A Film Trilogy on the River Indus' which screened at the Richmond Arts and Ideas Festival in June 2025. She was a participant in the ‘Tale of Three Rivers’ project launched by Dr Farid Azfar of Swathmore College in 2023. She has contributed critical essays to international publications such as the Literary Encyclopedia. She is a regular contributor of essays on art and exhibition reviews to Pakistan-based publications including Dawn, Architecture Design Arts (ADA/Iconica), and The Karachi Collective, among others. She is a graduate of Mount Holyoke College with a major in Cultural Anthropology.
At River Talk II, Nusrat will reflect on her project 'The River Sublime'. The River Sublime is a philosophical film (running length: 26 minutes) featuring three different ecospheres of the River Indus. Three artists have each created a chapter of the film that follows the course of the Indus from the Karakoram to the Arabian Sea. Nadeem Alkarimi’s chapter ‘The Karakoram Anomaly’ depicts the glacial landscape of Hunza and Baltistan. Sadqain Riaz’s chapter ‘Water as a Mirror to Memory and Crisis’ expresses his deep disquiet about pollution of the Ravi River. Qadir Jhatial’s chapter ‘River Allegories’ spans the length of the River Indus from where it enters the province of Sindh to its mouth in the delta region flowing into the Arabian Sea. The River Sublime urges inquiry into how art can critically and non-didactically engage with the imagination to support a change in consciousness in order to
address the systemic deterioration of nature caused by human activity.
'The River', Nadeem Alkarim
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River Talks are curated by Noor Ahmed, Martina Huber, and Anushka Rajendran for River Landscapes in collaboration with Karachi Biennale 2027, We Are AIA|Awareness in Art, and Prameya Art Foundation