Department: Tate Research Centre: Asia
Host: Nada Raza, Research Curator, Tate Research Centre: Asia
The Tate Research Centre: Asia aimed to deepen awareness of Tate’s growing international collection and address the significant challenge that Asian art represents in the United Kingdom in terms of access, public understanding and critical interpretation by advancing the documentation, acquisition and display of modern and contemporary Asian art.
Rabbya’s project within the Centre focused on live and performance art practices in South Asia and their historical development to the present day. Rabbya carried out a significant amount of research prior to her Fellowship, gathering material in-region (some of which was facilitated by Vasl Art, Karachi) to inform the work she delivered at Tate.
The Fellowship provided Rabbya with the opportunity to share and refine her research through discussions with fellow archivists, researchers and curators involved in the production, distribution, collection, documentation and conservation of performance art. These conversations took the form of a live broadcast, in which participants were invited to reflect and simultaneously act out questions about the very nature of performance art within the digital age.
Rabbya produced a presentation offering the team new perspectives on comparative practices in South Asia, a valuable resource for the Tate Research Centre: Asia.
Rabbya Naseer, Learning to be an American (Lesson 1) 2009.
Further collaboration with Tate
2018
Karachi Seminar: Critical Perspectives on Art and Education
In 2018 the Karachi Seminar, a day-long public seminar and two-day workshop organised by Tate Research Centre: Asia, was hosted by Habib University and the British Council in Karachi, with additional support from the Lahore Biennale Foundation.
Rabbya was one of the attendees awarded a travel grant to attend. Her perspective from the event, On Collective Practice and a Potential Archive of Performance Art by Artists in Pakistan, considers the recent emergence of artist collectives in both Lahore and Karachi and the ethics of engagement with people and communities. Rabbya notes that many of the ideas from the event resonated with the questions she is trying to address in developing an archive of performance art produced by artists in Pakistan.
Biography
Rabbya Naseer (b.1984) is engaged in making, teaching, writing, curating, what one might call ‘art’. She has a BFA from National College of Arts, Lahore (2002–6) and is a recipient of Fulbright scholarship for MAAH from School of Art Institute Chicago (2008–10).
She has been teaching graduate and undergraduate courses at NCA & BNU (2010–present), Addis Ababa University (2015 and 2017) and Academy of Fine Arts (Akbild) Vienna (2023). Currently she is pursuing a PhD at Akbild and is also compiling an archive of performance-art from Pakistan. Alongside her independent practice, she has been maintaining her collaborative practice with Hurmat ul Ain since 2007.
Naseer’s works and writings have appeared in various national and international exhibitions and publications, alongside her participation in residencies and conferences).
She was winner of apexart’s Unsolicited Proposal Program (New York, 2017), keynote speaker at Culturgest (Lisbon, 2019) and is the recipient of Belvedere Art Award (Vienna, 2024).
More information:
Independent practice
Collaboration with Hurmat ul Ain
PhD Project abstract