
Hanging Fire, the idiom used to suggest a critical delay, is an appropriate title for the first museum show in America of contemporary art from Pakistan, a country created by partition in 1947 that constitutes the second largest Muslim population in the world. Subject to ongoing complex shearing forces that result in a tenuous daily existence, frequently marked by violence, it fosters a critical mass of outstanding creative individuals in the visual arts whose work reflects or alludes to the coping with and negotiations of that existence.
Arif Mahmood’s Young and the Fearless (2004), gelatin silver print, 16 x 16 in. is a chilling image, prescient of the issues raised in Sikandar, the current film about an adolescent Kashmiri soccer player who comes upon a gun, and emblematic of the false bravado and empowerment issues felt by young men who find themselves in the unfitting position of possessing and handling a firearm. The Karachi-based street photographer states, “I document what I see, but I also give a small part of myself to the image.”
This highly recommended show, curated by the esteemed Salim Hashmi, includes other photo-based works, as well as painting, video, and sculpture by Hamra Abbas, Bani Abidi, Zahoor ul Akhlaq, Faiza Butt, Ayaz Jokhio, Naiza Khan, Huma Mulji, Asma Mundrawala, Imran Qureshi, Rashid Rana, Ali Raza, Answar Saeed, Adeela Suleman, and Mahreen Zuberi.

- Prof. Naazish Ata-Ullah of NCA and Koan Jeff Baysa, M.D.