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FOR CALGARY-BORN, Montreal-based Hajra
Waheed, a career in art was, it seems, destined. “My
mother was an abstract painter and stopped when
I was born, but she craved colour throughout her
pregnancy,” the multidisciplinary artist says. “She
would tell me stories that she would set me down [as
early as age two] with paper and a pencil and I would
just draw for hours.” A lot has happened (art school in
Chicago, odd jobs, even putting aside making art for a
couple of years) to transform Waheed—who says she
needs to make art to “process my lived experiences
and the world”—from a doodling toddler into the
internationally acclaimed artist she is today. (Her work
can be found at the National Gallery of Canada and
the MoMA, and she was shortlisted for the 2016 Sobey
Art Award.) This fall, Waheed is one of more than 90
artists participating in the first-ever Toronto Biennial
of Art, a 72-day event (from September 21 to December
- featuring exhibitions and installations along Lake
Ontario. It’s a process Waheed has relished. “Biennials
have the capacity to create generative spaces, asking
important questions and highlighting the importance
of art as a way to live and interact in the world,” she
says. “I don’t have all the answers, but I’m interested in
challenging viewers’ perceptions of official narratives.”
Something to ponder as you stroll the waterfront this
fall. PATRICIA KAROUNOS
HAJRA WAHEED
Video Installation Project 1-10, 2011–2013Untitled (MAP), 2016