2024
Community engaged stitching sessions, Lkwungen Territory, Victoria, BC and Haudenosanee Territory, Toronto, ON.
I was inspired to create the two red veils after reading a poem by fourteenth century Sufi poet Kabir Ghoonghat ke pat khol or Lift up the veil. The veils are an invitation to those who read, stitch, or recite the poem to contemplate lifting the veils of illusion that keep us from connecting with the formless divine within us and the oneness of all beings.
The two veils were created as a community embroidery project, as a way to celebrate collective divinity and interconnectedness. Over several weeks people from various backgrounds—across ancestries, religions, genders, and age groups—to not only sew together but to in turn create new bonds, renew old relationships, and create art. During these embroidery circles, I would recite Kabir’s poem and invite reflection on the themes. Participants expressed that the embroidery circles were healing and provided an opportunity to reclaim ancestral knowledge and practice, especially skills rooted among the matriarchs of their ancestors.
The poem is presented on the veils in Hindi and in Punjabi to signal that Kabir’s words hold meaning across faith-based communities as he is revered by Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs and others. The red organza acts as the veil to be lifted in reverence and celebration of dissolving earthly illusions. The cotton thread reflects that even the ordinary encompasses divinity and oneness. The gold fringe frames the belief that humans and the nonhuman world are inherently divine and interdependent.
Gratitude to Harpreet Leekha for translating the poem to Punjabi and to the many hands and hearts who created this work:
Amna Ahmad, Nadia Ali, Bushra Asghar, Liz Bean, Serena Bhandar, Prakhar Bhardwaj, Gillian Booth, Gail Boulger, Matty Cervantes, Polly Chan, Asha Crocker, Supriya Crocker, Rita Kaur Dhamoon, Sophia Fatima, Afshan Haq, Cairo Haq, Chris Haq, Farida Haq, Claire Hutton, Crystal James, Yasmine Kandil, Ben Keep, Gagan Leekha, Harpreet Leekha, Olvie Li, Sophie Martin, Setareh Mohammadi, Mandeep Kaur Mucina, Nandi Mucina, Joshua Ngenda, Taylor Pannell, Inayah Patel, Samihah Patel, Corrie Peters, Anahita Ranjbar, Benjamin Cruz Reddy, Zameen Sabet, Jamison Schulz-Franco, Amena Sharmin, Regan Shrumm, Soobia Siddiqui, Meaghan Smith, Shanta Tayab, Nicola Watts, Macayla Yan
2024
The Reach Gallery, S'ólh Téméxw, Abbotsford, BC
Photos: Dale Klippenstein
Rasam: Hamara Badan is a community ceremony where the artist invites family, friends, art community to performatively install 140 pounds of masoor ki daal (red lentils), the weight of the artist’s mother. Drawing inspiration from the South Asian wedding procession, a drummer leads the procession consisting of 3 pairs of women carrying gold bundles between them, a red dupatta held aloft over them. Each gold bundle holds 47 pounds of lentils that are carefully poured out onto a white cloth. Kabir’s poem “Ghoonghat ke pat Khol re (Lift up your veil) is sung repeatedly for the duration of the ceremony/installation. The words of Kabir inviting viewers and witnesses to remember the divine within each body resonates throughout the space and readies the gallery for this work honouring the maternal body.
Rasam: Hamara Badan installation ceremony was possible with the generosity of Harpreet Leekha, Pavan Leekha, Gagan Leekha, Matilde Cervantes, Fariha Ahmed, Sandeep Johal. Shukriya.
2023
Tseycum Village
Collaboration with Sarah Jim, the Jim Family and the Haq Family.
A landback restoration event, bringing Muslim and POC communities celebrating Eid to Tsecum Reserve to pull ivy on the Jim Family land. In celebration of Eid and service to the land and devotion to spirit, community shared a feast of warm Indian food in the restored forest. Stories were exchanged and a traditional Indian stick dance (dandiya) was performed to heal and give thanks to the land.
This event was coordinated by Farheen Haq, Sarah Jim, the Habitat Acquisition Trust and financially supported by Kikila Perrin. Shukriya/HISKWE to the Jim Family for hosting us, to all our friends and community for helping to heal the land by pulling ivy, sharing your joy and feasting together.
2023
Campbell River Art Gallery, Liǧʷiłdax̌ʷ territory, Campbell River, BC
Photos by Marc Kitteringham
Tea ceremony, plant medicine exchange in collaboration with Muneera Wallace, Cory Cliffe & Vanessa Sharkey
Paxala is the Kwakwakaʼwakw word for Healing, Shifa is the Arabic word for Healing. Paxala Shifa was a gathering of Indigenous and South Asian communities coming together to share plant medicine and feast together. Farheen collaborated with Ayurvedic practitioner Muneera Wallace to share the medicinal properties of plants used in chai (ginger, cardamom, pepper, cloves, ajwain, fennel) as they brewed chai in the gallery. In exchange, Vanessa Sharkey and Cory Cliffe shared traditional Labrador tea from Liǧʷiłdax̌ʷ territory. There was a feast of bannock, salmon, kicheree, samosas and laddoos alongside an exchange of songs and much laughter.
Thank you to the Campbell River Art Gallery for their support of this joyous event, and to hereditary chief James Quatell for your welcome and stories.
2022
Komok’s Territory
Collaboration with Emily Thiessen and Wachiay Studio.
This weekend retreat was organized for members of our intergenerational BIPOC artists who worked on the Coup des Deesses mural project.
A two day gathering to ground ourselves to the territory through mindfulness and drawing activities along the Puntledge River. Using the land and water wisdom to create designs, participants learned how to create prints using screenprinting technology.
2018
Lkwungen Territory, Victoria, BC
Inspired by Gandhi’s Salt March, an act of civil disobedience against Britain’s colonial laws in India, I created a ceremony and public march for the unveiling of the Fearless Collective mural “To Finally Heal” in summer 2018. This mural brought together Indigenous and racilialized women to share stories of healing. The Saltwater March offered a ceremony to locate ourselves within the Great Source of the ocean to offer our gratitude and march from the ocean to the site of the mural. Participants were led in a guided meditation grounding on the land and connecting with the ocean. Each participant dipped a part of a long length of blue cloth into the water and carried it in a moving water procession to the mural site.
2020-2021
Lkwungen Territory, Esquimalt, BC
Co-founded by artists Farheen Haq, Kemi Craig and their teenagers Aya Behr and Aisha Haq. Coup des Dessess is a public mural project created by an integenerational art collective of women, girls, femmes, and non-binary folks. . Youth artists for this mural include: Aya Behr, Aisha Haq, Corvus Campbell, Kasîpinît Napoleon, Ivory Tatem, and Sara Vanderhasslet.
This project was a collaborative process that was realized through community workshops which invited in artists/mentors: Farheen Haq, Kemi Craig, Serena Lukas Bhandar, Rita Dhamoon, Stephanie Papik, Sarah Jim (W̱SÁNEĆ), Emily Thiessen, & Olvie Li. We learned from each other and shared our dreams for what a world led by strong women and honouring our feminine ancestors could look like. Workshops included: quilt square making, collaging, drawing, writing, and learning about revolutionary women from South Asia.
Technical and design support from artists Emily Thiessen and Sarah Jim.
2019
Land-based community conversations, presencing and art-making methodology on the shoreline of Lkwungen Territory.
As part of Farheen, Charles Campbell and Bradley Dick’s colloborative project The Ground Above Us, we invited community groups to take plaster casts and copper impressions of the rocks and to meditate on our presence on Lkwungen Territory. While labouring silently in pairs with plaster casts or making copper rubbings of the rocks we asked folks to see what arrived for them through being on the rocks. In dyads (pairs), participants listened deeply to each other and recorded their reflections. These audio stories became part of the installation for The Ground Above Us. After our process we shared our reflections and feasted together on the beach. These community gatherings were meditative and intentional spaces of sharing how we arrive on the lands we occupy.
Project participants were: Gerry Ambers, Sarah Jim, Tiffany Joseph, Lorilee Wastasecoot, Gillian Booth, Michelle Jacques, Nicole Achtymichuk, Noam Sandford Blades, Denni Clement, Calvin Cairns, Isobel Campbell, Maia Castano, Matty Cervantes, Mex Cox, Mary Crocker, Odin Crocker, Tay Crocker, Lindsay Delaronde, Diana Gibson, Laura Gildner, Aisha Haq, Cairo Haq, Chris Haq, Kym Hines, Paula Jardine, Mundeep Kaur Mucina, Naomi Kennedy, Gagan Leekha, Devi Mucina, Khumalo Mucina, Nandi Mucina, Michelle Mulder, Dora Navarrete, Inayah Patel, Bo Peterson, Grant Peterson, Hector Perez, Hillary Quinn, Valerie Salez, Regan Shrumm, Eva Thompson, Jovis Thompson, Torin Thompson, Jennifer Van de Pol, Paul Walde, Andrea Walker-Collins, Chen Wang, Jesse and Noah.
The Ground Above us was supported by The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and UVic’s Legacy Galleries. Thank you Michelle and Gillian for your your trust and faith in this work.
2016
Flux Media Gallery, Lkwungen Territory, Victoria, BC
Remembering Our Mothers was a participatory art, food and spirit gathering that emerged from a collaboration with Gerry Ambers (Namgis Nation, Alert Bay, BC). I wanted to situate my exhibition within indigenous territory, history and ways of knowing, while calling upon my own tradition of ancestor respect and devotion. Because the work in the show is about motherhood, Gerry and I created a ceremony that pulled in ideas from the exhibition with a chance for viewers to actively participate in connecting with ideas of the maternal, their ancestors and acknowledging the land we rest on as a nourishing body.
Remembering Our Mothers took place on Friday November 18, 2016 as a pre-opening event for the exhibition Being Home. A circle of almost 80 people gathered to breathe together, acknowledge the land, call forth their ancestors, make an offering and feast on seasonal soup. Much gratitude to Gerry Ambers for the gift of friendship and the opportunity to work together and to MediaNet for supporting this event and for serving soup and drinks!
2016
syilx / Okanagan Territory, Kelowna, BC
In order to activate the site of my new exhibition and to bring my work out of the gallery, I created a public offering before the opening of my show at the Alternator Gallery. Bringing my exhibition Being Home from Vancouver Island to the Okanagan, had me asking questions of how we honour the ways land nurtures us and how we can render visible the work of motherhood in all its forms.
Activating the extended tablecloth used in her performative video installations at the Alternator Gallery, Farheen invited the community to gather around her dastarkhan - a long tablecloth placed on the ground in South Asia to share in gratitude and feasting.
A gathering clustered around the tablecloth, sipping chai, various children created a mandala from materials by nearby Knox Mountain where I had taken my children to hike earlier that morning. Acknowledging the land and the Syilx territory I was visiting, I invited people to join me in laying down on the tablecloth, guiding the group in a meditative reflection on the ways our bodies are nourished, our connection to maternal energies and our foremothers through the rise and fall of our bellies, and our bodies as expressions of the land living through us. The tablecloth was spread with laying bodies, changing our orientation and our habitual way of coming into contact with the outdoor surroundings.
** Many thanks to the Alternator staff for their support and to Crystal at ChaiBaba tea for the chai.
