The Scholarship of Making - Cohort 2025, working on “Land Matters,” recently came to a close.
This year’s cohort explored land, identity, and belonging through a wide range of mediums. Each project emerged from deep research, lived experience, and experimental practice. These works were then brought into the public realm through Citizen Juries; collective spaces where ideas were tested, challenged, and strengthened in conversation with others.
Safi’s Living Ruins, Artifacts examines the banyan tree as a living witness to Islamabad’s lost and rapidly disappearing villages. Rooted in indigenous histories of belonging, these trees stand as sites of memory while also bearing testimony to displacement, demolition, and erasure.
Thank you to the citizens, jurors, and community members who showed up with curiosity, and critical engagement.
“Living Artifacts, Ruins” examines the Banyan tree as a living artifact of Islamabad’s lost and imminently disappearing villages.
This illustration came out of a study of the land use history of Sinyari and Chauntra villages, where the displacement of the indigenous population makes way for real estate and state narratives.
The illustration speculates on what remains of belonging within fences, boundary walls and tabula rasa. Here, the large Banyan of Sinyari stands as a marker of embodied history and the resistance of the land to real estate forces.
Made as part of the Laajverd Scholarship of Making, Cohort 2025 on “Land Matters”.
@laajverdofficial
“Living Artifacts, Ruins” examines the Banyan tree as a living artifact of Islamabad’s lost and imminently disappearing villages.
This illustration came out of a study of the ancient Banyan trees at the Shah Allah Ditta caves and the local histories/folklores intertwined with them.
The illustration brings together aspects of belonging; associations made between the locals, the land, and the water spring, as well as aspects of resistance to real estate and non-local actors.
Produced under Laajverd Scholarship of Making, Cohort 2025 on “Land Matters”.
@laajverdofficial
Mastuj, Upper Chitral
August 2023
I recall Mastuj very fondly, walking near the fort and bazaar, watching (and playing) a game of football as the sun came down and met the confluence of the two rivers.
Harchin, Upper Chitral
August 2023
The bus from Phander reached its terminus at Harchin. From here on I would need a jeep to reach Mastuj.
The bus driver removed all the bags from the top of the bus, and I found my trekking bag missing; it had found its own destination in a house somewhere in Sor Laspur.
I continued on without my belongings, believing it best to let go of them quickly.
A few months later, I received a call from Laspur and my belongings were safe in a family house, mistaken for another bag.
I was unable to retrieve it due to one reason or another- so I hope my favourite trekking bag has been given a new life and seen new base-camps.
Khalti, Ghizer (2)
August 2023
In the morning I took a walk around Khalti. I was welcomed inside a house near the Jamatkhana, overlooking the suspension bridge and the last calm ripples of the lake.
A little further on, I heard the sound of the lake gushing forth into a river.
Khalti, Ghizer (1)
August 2023
Hitchhiking from Gilgit, a pickup truck dropped me off near the Yasin bridge at Gupis. The sun was setting soon, and I wasn’t sure where to go from here.
I bought some water and biscuits at a general store and I was told there was a lake not far from there. So I began walking on the road and that’s when I entered Khalti.
I had the best time at Khalti. Sifet Ali showed me all around Khalti and I would try to sing as he played the sitar after dinner. I ended up staying a few days and listened to many local folktales and life stories.
Mujawer, Immit, Ishkoman
March 2025
Cherry and almond blossoms were in bloom when I visited Imit, Ishkoman. I remember walking around Mujawer as Nadeem Khan showed me around, telling stories of how each group of people settled in Imit.
“There are 7 ethnicities in Immit; Kho, Shina, Burusho, Wakhi, Kyrgyz, Gujjar and Pakhtun.”
We sat in his family home and over many chais, I heard family stories of Kyrgyz migration, language, and future hopes and dreams.
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In this drawing, I experimented finger painting using colours from cherries. The brown is from oxidised, rotten fruit and purple is from freshly cut fruit.
