A Letter From My Sister, November 16, 2015
Hajra Waheed
2023

A Letter From My Sister, November 16, 2015 unfolds as a counter-document anchored in an intimate letter written in response to a state of emergency following a series of deadly attacks, tracing the cyclical and generational impacts of colonial and state violence. Building on Waheed’s practice of mapping such patterns, the film positions the sky as witness, where brutality is inscribed, resistance refuses erasure, and poetry insists on life in the shadow of power.

A Letter From My Sister, November 16, 2015, 2023, 11 min 05 sec.
Written by: Sarah Waheed
Video Editor: Lucas Villegas
Sound Composition: Laurel Sprengelmeyer & Hajra Waheed
Sound Mastering: Pietro Amato
Made with the support of State of Concept, Athens and Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ).

Hajra Waheed (b. 1980, Canada; lives and works between Montreal and Yogyakarta) is a multidisciplinary artist working in painting, drawing, video, sound, sculpture, and installation. Her practice explores the nature of power, the human impact of displacement and incarceration, and the transformative possibilities of liberation struggles. Characterized by a distinct visual language and a unique poetic approach, her works often use the ordinary to convey the profound, and invoke landscape to transpose human struggle and a radical politics of resistance and resilience. Waheed has exhibited worldwide, including: 36th São Paulo Biennial, 15th Shanghai Biennial, IMMA (Dublin), Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (Delhi), Sharjah Biennial 15, Centre Pompidou (Paris), Portikus (Frankfurt), Lahore Biennial 02, 57th Venice Biennale and 11th Gwangju Biennale.