• Issue
  • May 01, 2023

Up Close: Hajra Waheed

Installation view of HAJRA WAHEED, Hum II, 2023, multi-channel sound installation: 30 min 51 sec, at Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah Biennial 15, 2023. Photo by Ismail Noor. Courtesy the artist.

Sit down, lie down, close your eyes, try to stop seeing, and just feel the sound around you. That itself is the first commitment to Hajra Waheed’s sonic installation Hum II (2023), which was installed in a conical architectural structure at Sharjah Biennial 15. Despite beautiful light from an oculus—stark during the day, enchanting at dusk—the experience come the voices that surround you, humming or throat singing, captured with such startling immediacy it feels like you are in the room with them.