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Bibi Hajra

@bibihajra_

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بی بی ہاجرہ
Architect/ painter running @_studio1x1_

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Department of Fine Arts Kinnaird College for Women invites you to an artist talk by Bibi Hajra @bibihajra_

‘Sacred Geographies, Gender & The Politics of Space’

Tuesday, 28 April 2026
12:00 PM – 1:00 PM
Video Conferencing Room, Amaltas Courtyard

Bibi Hajra is a Lahore-based architect, researcher, academic, and visual artist whose interdisciplinary practice moves between urban inquiry, spatial memory, and contemporary art. Her work is deeply rooted in long-term research around a prominent shrine of a female saint, where she examines the lived experiences, rituals, and belief systems of women devotees through questions of gender, faith, and politics of space.

She holds a Masters in Urban Studies through the prestigious Erasmus Mundus 4 Cities Program in Europe and a Bachelors with (Hons.) in Architecture from the National College of Arts. Her work has been exhibited widely in Pakistan and internationally, including at Asia Now, Canvas Gallery, Rizq Art Initiative, Lahore Biennale Foundation, and most recently at Numaish Gah. In 2019, she presented her solo exhibition Dhaak Kay Teen Pat at LUMS.

Alongside her artistic practice, Hajra has contributed to important publications including Lahore in Motion (UCL Press, 2025) and Spaces of Religion in Urban South Asia (Routledge, 2021), and has taught architecture and urban theory at COMSATS University.

Through research, teaching, and artmaking, she continues to shape conversations around women’s spaces, sacred geographies, and contemporary South Asianvisual culture.

@kinnairdofficial
@bibihajra_ by @bibihajra_

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5 months ago

Keynote Speaker: Bibi Hajra @bibihajra_

Talk Title: My Saint, A Courtyard (format: in-person)

دھیان دی چھجلی گیان دا جھاڑو
کام کرودھ نت جھاڑدی
قاضی جانے سانوں حاکم
جانے، ساتھے پھارکھتی ویگار دی۔
“To draw in” with a jharoo
“To bear” with a jharoo
“To pull in” with a jharoo
“To endure” with a jharoo

A woman is drawing, pulling, enduring, carrying — all through the sweeping motions of a jharoo. In one instance, she tends to her home; in another, to the courtyard of her beloved saint. In both, she lives within precarity — where her labour of care, belonging and commitment is routinely challenged.

Emerging from five years of sitting in the sangats of Bibi Ruqqaiya’s courtyard, alongside visitors and workers of the darbar, this body of work proposes Jharoo Kashi as a distinct mode of engagement with zanana spaces and the structures of power that exist within and outside its organization.

The rhythmic, repetitive act of sweeping — gathering dust, debris, petals, and fallen leaves into corners — becomes more than a care ritual for the saint’s courtyard. Jharoo Kashi also serves the self by allowing the mind and body to synchronically sift through worldly residue toward a state of inner clarity. Yet the jharoo kash women stands within a tension. Their work is both ibadat and livelihood. At times formalized by the state, at others governed by private
contractors. Unburdening the mind, cleansing the soul, and expressing love for the saint run parallel to the conditions of employment that structures their worlds.

Through paintings, archives, and installations the work shows that it is in the saint’s courtyard where Jharoo kashi pulls in the spiritual, the religious, the material, the physical and the organizational worlds together, not as separate registers but in a singular fold all in one sweep.

*Registration for the symposium is now live, link in bio* by @bibihajra_

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7 months ago

جھاڑو کشی :
‘ to draw in’ with a jharoo
- ‘to bear’ with a jharoo
- ‘to pull in’ with a jharoo
- ‘to endure’ with a jharoo
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#bibipakdaman by @bibihajra_

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5 years ago

گاوٴں ، شہر اور بیچ میں بیبیاں پاک دامن۔ 🥰 پیشکش غلام مصطفا ،علی ، محمد ابراہیم ۔ by @bibihajra_

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13 days ago

Inspired by ✨ کن فَیَکُن✨
After a ton of samples and ratio calculations - floors of Lime and dry pigments with marble chips. Brass rings of cosmic happenings and Pak green marble hand cut tikkies - of numerology that took some workings. I hope you like. ⭐️ by @bibihajra_

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19 days ago

My cave that gives me so much love daily.
I will miss my dusty pile of mental web sites and spider abodes. 🕷️
Onwards to lessness. ❤️ by @bibihajra_

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2 months ago

The soul lives in the divine like a fish in water.

Titled : The Architect and The Five Companions.
Oil on Paper
2026

Inspired by an image of a plate from Iran dated 607/1210. by @bibihajra_

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2 months ago

The Sovereign,
The 4 legged Mother.

Portion of a recent painting. by @bibihajra_

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2 months ago

Five companions on a six legged horse.
Oil paint on paper
Just finished! by @bibihajra_

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3 months ago

Nature striking a pose.
Oil on Canvas
30”x36” by @bibihajra_

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3 months ago

Chandra -Bhag / Moon - river / چناب by @bibihajra_

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3 months ago

A late night encounter with a jackal. by @bibihajra_

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3 months ago