PROJECTS

Painting the Persian Book of Kings Today: Ancient Text and Modern Images. Foreword by Charles Melville
Catalogue of the Contemporary Shahnama Millennium Exhibition

Ranked with some of the world's greatest literature like the Mahabharata and the Iliad, the Shahnama or 'Persian Epic of Kings' is at the heart of a traveling exhibition that opened at London's Princes Foundation Gallery in December, 2010. The 'Contemporary Shahnama Millennium Painting Exhibition' celebrates the importance of the epic poem a thousand years after the great Iranian poet Firdausi composed it in 1010 CE. Originally designed to accompany the exhibition of Shahnama manuscripts and paintings that opened in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge (11 September 2010 – 9 January 2011), the exhibition traveled to Lahore's National College of Arts In March, 2011, and will be moving on to the UAE, Iran and the US during 2011-2012.

 Invoked over the centuries as "a political statement against power and tyranny", Shahnama's concern with universal values and deepening of human conscience makes it an enduring text for all times.

There is much that is groundbreaking in the new readings of the Shahnama and this is exemplified in the essays and images of the exhibition. Representations of the epic's main hero Rostam, for example, range from his traditional depictions as heroic warrior, to comical macho, digital war machine, and Talibanic dev. Likewise, some of the Catalogue essays unveil a surprising facet of Shahnama women. Bold and confident, these women show remarkable perseverance as individuals, taking a stand especially when it comes to choosing their husbands, or raising sons as single parent.

The essays in the Exhibition Catalogue further examine the epic's importance in a turbulent region spanning Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran—a region that largely constitutes the poem's theatre of action and is the epicentre of extremist Islamic insurgencies today that are both a product and response to the 'global war on terror'.  A vibrant array of artists and academics from Australia, Britain, France, Germany, Iran, India, Pakistan and Russia who created this exhibition are testament to Shahnama's relevance in a nascent global culture where the creation of new consciousness is a heroic act.

Miniature painter and curator Fatima Zahra Hassan-Agha organized the exhibition in association with Charles Melville, Director of the Cambridge Shahnama project, University of Cambridge, and Suroosh Irfani, Director of the Research & Publication Center, National College of Arts, Lahore.




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Art Architecture and Design Education in the New Millennium (by Nadeem Omar)
Editor: Mr. Nasir Jamal
Starting date: December 2002
Dune-e-Fun ur Mashoor Funkar by A. R. Ijaz
Editor: Mr. Qazi Javaid
Starting Date: March 2003

Shahid Sajjad (by Akbar Naqvi)
Editor: Mrs Perin Cooper Boga
Starting Date: January 2004

Lyall's Poetry
Starting Date: January 2004

Thumbnail Sketch of NCA (by Tahir Kamran)
Starting Date: December 2001

Shakir Ali (by Prof. Ejaz ul Hassan)
Starting Date: October 2003

Model Making (by Jamshed)
Starting Date: March 2004

Textile Project by Madeeha Erum (Desktop Publication)
Starting Date: June 2003

Terz-e-Nigha (translated by Gulnaz Kausar)
Starting Date: June 2003

Sikh Architecture (by Samia Karamat)
Editor: Mrs Boga
Starting Date: April 2002

New Draft (by Dr. Mubarek Ali)
Starting Date: May 2006

Gandhara Relief (by Shahzad Haider)
Starting Date: November 2003

Punjab Uneesvein Sadi Mein
translated by Naeemullah Malik

Tazia (by Gulam Abbas)
Editor: Mariam Qureshi
Starting Date: May 2006