Bleeding Borders: In the Shadow of Routes Long Traveled
Amin Rehman
November 5-29, 2025
The Indus River once served as a vital passageway for traders, scholars, and artists moving southward
into the Indian subcontinent. Over centuries, this corridor was transformed—first by foreign invaders
pursuing power and wealth, then by colonial powers whose residues continue to echo across South Asia.
From the rise and fall of empires to the British colonial rule and the violent partition of 1947, these
borderlands have remained a site of tension and transition.
Exploring the complex histories and lived experiences of communities along Pakistan’s borderlands with
India, Iran, and Afghanistan, Amin Rehman maps a journey from ancient histories to contemporary
struggles shaped by environmental degradation, political instability, and globalization. Through a series
of mixed media, video, and text-based works, the exhibition unfolds across four interwoven themes:
ancient histories, migration, language, and the region’s current environmental and political conditions.
Through layered text, visual fragmentation, and the interplay of regional and colonial languages, Rehman
challenges dominant narratives and offers space for reflection on the border as both a physical and
symbolic site of disruption.
Bleeding Borders invites audiences to consider the histories of travel, through land, through people, and
through the lingering shadows they cast across time and place. It speaks not only to suppressed memory
but also to broader questions of forced borders, belonging, and the resilience of those who inhabit
displacement.
