As part of Suleman Aqeel Khilji’s two month teaching residency at Vasl Artists’ Collective, the artist conducted drawing classes with the thesis year students from the Department of Fine Art at the Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture (IVS). Khilji’s classes were aimed at exploring the flexibility of drawing as a medium and introducing the students to how drawing can serve as a multi-functional tool to develop their concepts for their thesis projects. During Khilji’s stay at Vasl, he developed his own research and practice for the publication and exhibition See View, created as the first edition of the journal Drawing Documents. This journal was conceptualized in early 2016 by artist Seher Naveed as a publication which explores the boundaries of drawing and highlights the importance and significance of the medium. Its aim was to research upon contemporary drawing practices in Pakistan through four artists and collaborating writers, documenting the work of the artists’ with visuals and writings.With Suleman Aqeel Khilji being the first artist to display his work for the journal, Drawing Documents launched See View at the IVS Gallery with support from the Department of Fine Art. Khilji’s work for the show at the gallery revealed his accumulated research during his two-month residency at Vasl while simultaneously conducting his classes at the IVS.

See View is a word play on ‘Sea View’ which is a public beach in Karachi. This long stretch of sand and sea is dotted with vendors and crowds of people in the evenings to enjoy the coastal sea breeze. The beach is surrounded by an ever rising number of towering concrete buildings. This juxtaposition of the beach and the rapid urbanization of the city encapsulated an iconic visual of Karachi’s landscape in Khilji’s eyes. See View featured sketches and water color drawings of inanimate objects such as building materials, lending the viewer an insight into the artists’ observations of the city. Khilji’s collaborative writer for Drawing Documents was visual artist Fazal Rizvi who responded with a written account that read as a letter between one object to the other, personifying the lifeless construction material in the city which Khilji had translated in his visuals.