The artworks in this exhibition consider protest as a generative site of cultural identity and resistance to the occupation. With state propaganda falsely reporting a state of normality in the valley, Howard Hamilton works to shed light on the reality of Kashmir. By pairing recent footage of protests with footage of other historic freedom movements, he hopes to inspire the audience to express solidarity while also providing an understanding as to why there is unrest in Kashmir, and how valuable it is for us to have agency and autonomy as human beings and how hard we are willing to strive for it.

Hamzah Amin reimagines Kashmiri myths and legends told to him by his family so as to culturally reject colonial and state narratives that attempt to obscure and revise Kashmiri heritage.

Qurat Dar explores the effects of growing up as a diasporic Kashmiri and grappling with severed connections to homelands and ancestors who are now inaccessible as a result of fractured state boundaries.

Howard Hamilton, Qurat Dar, and Hamzah Amin (Emergence Artists & Curators)