Aavjo. આવજો.

In Gujarat, whenever one leaves after meeting someone, especially someone dear to them, one says, aavjo. It literally means, come back ; come soon. It is indeed odd to start a foreword with a colloquial term for saying good-bye, but, therein lies the magic of this artists’ publication that you hold. You would wish for it to come back soon with more stories, more shared histories and more friendships.

With Separation’s Geography, India’s Daak and Pakistan’s Mandarjazail Collective have bridged borders at a unique time in human history — where the globe has flattened even more, but social distances have increased. Starting in June 2019, their collaboration underwent the pandemic induced virtualness as well as artistic practises’ world over responding to virtual mediums out of choice and necessity. This collaboration is not a mere act of translation to bridge gaps, but an accommodation of many interpretations and vantage points making a rainbow of more colors than we choose to see.

In my journey as a curator and educator of South Asian art, I have observed how artists and artworks speak to the truth of our times, and it is crucial to provide them platforms to do so safely and widely. In orienting yourself across script that starts from the left and the right, you will learn how this conversation has been woven in a way that will keep you yearning for more time with the artworks showcased here.

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While Shahzaib Arif Shaikh and Nusaiba Khan individually interpret and distinguish their everyday experience in India and Pakistan, you will see that their mixed media explorations give a voice to the strength and fervour of everything we associate with strong feelings; from conversations to gatherings of people. Richi Bhatia and Hira Khan create a confluence of script and language with Hindi, Gujarati, Urdu, Arabic, Sindhi, and English. In this sculpted textural imagery, the desire to be the deliverer of these letters between Bhatia and Khan will overtake you — and there I hope dear viewer, you will see how the sister cities of Karachi, Mumbai, Delhi and Ahmedabad, spin a reality so familiar to what is around you. When it comes to the ideas of home which have stilled in your mind a certain way, an ancestral home, a specific fragrance, the exact amount of spice, there is an ache. This ache has the bearable texture of lament, and with Mahvash and Numair, you would archive this ache through their text based conversations. For a consistent query about the comfort to not just dream and sleep, but to be able to rest, Veera Rustomji brings together multiple textures of this common entity that sometimes eludes all — restful sleep. Similarly, Affan Baghpati takes one thread in an object’s biography, and pulls that thread across 3 continents. And you would await for the next chapter of that story. The adage ‘the more things change, the more they remain the same’ finds a mirror with Onaiza and Fahad, as they bring a balanced duality in temptations of a land so far away in our mental archetypes but so near in our physical travels. With artists Shanzay and Abhishek, you are given an entry into what could be alternate endings if we could tease the strands of time like the references to their grandparents’ do — for whom knowing Urdu and Hindi was a result of everyday fact, not an aspiration.

And when you reach the end, your heart might be heavy, you may breathe a little slower, as it is time for you to ponder with me. For those of us who have wondered about our collective past with Pakistan, visited the Wagah-Attari border, or have had ancestral family members cross this path at a bygone time, this is indeed a time to rethink. Would we stand here and now, and be encased only by patriotic fervour, or would we be able to look across for a manzil, a sense of home and know that it feels a lot like our own? It may be a utopian possibility. But, at the moment, what is possible is this artists’ publication that you are viewing right now — a reflection and reality of what all is possible if we try.

Shaleen Wadhwana is an independent arts and heritage professional who has worked with various Indian art galleries and museums.