Contemporary Pakistani Art @ Asia Society (NY)

A little over a week ago I had the fortune of visiting the Asia Society’s new exhibit, Hanging Fire: Contemporary Art from Pakistan. I found the works on display, from the likes of Rashid Rana (1, 2) and Zahoor ul-Akhlaq (1, 2), to be provocative and courageous. They tackled issues such as gender, militance and postcolonial mentalities in Pakistan. Above is a great discussion from the exhibit’s opening. Do try to make it to this wonderful exhibit if you are in New York—it runs until January 3rd.

Movement

I’ve been extremely interested lately in the idea of wanderers. There is an itinerant impulse in some of us that makes it hard to sit in one place for more than a few minutes, to settle down in one home or one city. An impulse that is weary of a settling of the mind that can accompany a physically sedentary existence.

At the same time, I used to get extremely stressed when traveling anywhere: did I forget anything, and why am I going on this trip in the first place when I have so much to do at home? These are the kind of thoughts that have pushed people I’ve known to become relative homebodies.

To me, nevertheless, there’s value in the motion between places. Something in the gentle rocking of a bus, or a boat; the visions of clouds or homes or people flying across my horizon.

Its instructive how breaking our routine in the place we live in can feel almost like traveling abroad. Or if we look at pictures of our past in albums, or our future in our mind’s eye, we feel as though we are traversing some ineffable distance. They are all forms of movement, and in that movement we can grow remarkably in our senses and our self-awareness.

Falk on Gaza War

Originally appeared on Le Monde Diplomatique

Israel’s war crimes

By Robert Falk

Israel blamed its earlier wars on the threat to its security, even that against Lebanon in 1982. However, its assault on Gaza was not justified and there are international calls for an investigation. But is there the political will to make Israel account for its war crimes?