The excavating, cataloguing, and organizing of overlooked historical material is the constant around which Hajra Waheed\u2019s multidisciplinary practice is articulated. Found material, such as declassified government documents, technical diagrams, and photographs \u2014 always altered and reimagined \u2014 determine the formal qualities of serial bodies of works that unfold like chapters, often assembled over the course of many years. Seeking to expose marginalized and ignored histories, Waheed\u2019s archival constellations examine geopolitical conflicts and how their machinations impact civilian life. Themes of disappearance, displacement, and trauma associated with cycles of colonial violence (Sea Change<\/em>, 2011\u2013ongoing); surveillance and censorship (Video Installation Project 1\u201310, 2011\u20132013); industrial development and sacred architecture (Expansion Charts<\/em>, 2012\u20132013) are explored via complex narrative arrangements. Through the contestation and disruption of established historical and cultural narratives, and recontextualization of material traces, Waheed\u2019s practice acts as a catalyst for reflecting on covert structures of power and their inherent violence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The intersection of geopolitical tensions and military technology is confronted directly in the Drone Studie<\/em>s (2010\u2013ongoing), a rhizomatic chronicle tracing the genealogy of an imagined conflict. In one of the first chapters of the series, Fear Brings About 1\u20135<\/em> (2010), glossy images of military aerial technology, cut out of Cold War-era issues of Life Magazine<\/em>andNational Geographic<\/em>, are collaged with prayers scrolled in Arabic reserved for uncertain times, creating a juxtaposition that forebodes looming hostilities. Taking the 1960 U-2 incident (the Soviet Union\u2019s capture of an American pilot on a reconnaissance mission) as a point of departure, Architectural Studies 1\u201317<\/em> (2011) and Article 000 1\u201321<\/em>(2016) are composed of fabricated documents that could pass for recovered images once produced by U-2 pilots. These aerial view drawings and architectural blueprints respectively allude to or record the destruction of historically significant sacred sites and mosques. In The Cyphers 1\u201318<\/em>(2016), charred metal fragments, implying a violent explosion, are meticulously displayed alongside technical diagrams and photographic surveillance data. Disquieting, this latest chapter of Drone Studies<\/em> signals that this conflict, reimagined yet all too plausible, has ultimately erupted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Traduit de l\u2019anglais par Catherine Barnab\u00e9<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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