The Taaza Tareen Residency in Lahore, titled ‘Margin’ brought together artists Ayesha Zulfiqar, Habib Phulpoto, S.M Raza Zaidi and Zainab Siddiqui. The three-week residency placed the ‘untranslatable’ elements of the artist’s background, politics and experience at the center of the artistic practice – opening the floor to insightful discussions and a wide array of fresh ideas and works. On the whole, the outcome of Taaza Tareen Residency suggested the varied trajectories of the artists working in one place and in identical conditions.

Zainab Siddique created two videos and an installation in which a viewer was able to enter a large sized cube composed of plastic stripes.

Ayesha Zulfiqar’s work communicated with the audience through communal languages by means of probing complex concepts by using convincing and communal languages. Zulfiqar sliced the inside of a pot, splitting the clay, roots, and the plant into two halves. The two sides were fused with metal wires, thus alluding to the altered fate of our environment and encroaching industrial elements in the domain of nature.

Ayesha Kamal’s videos recorded the image of a temporary structure made of corrugated sheet.  The videos were displayed through a tiny window inside the actual structure. The dichotomy of the image and object, evident in her works, also signified the basic existential issues of home, domesticity and alienation.

This residency was facilitated by Haider Ali Jan and Asad Hayee.