Farheen Haq:
Inclination and Forgiveness

Indian Summer Festival and grunt gallery present two works by Farheen Haq: Inclination (2024) and Forgiveness (2022). 

Farheen Haq’s video works are reflections of personal and political reconciliations within family and place. Haq distills her inner world with gestures from daily rituals which she subtly shifts into new spaces of meaning. In her meditative works, Haq invites viewers to reconsider simple acts whether through washing hands with a loved one or prostrating in the forest. The videos selected for Indian Summer Festival 2026 transport us to the realm of the sacred within us, around us, and between us.

Artist statement: 

Inclination (2024): 1 min 49 secs, double channel video

As my relationship to the land on which I reside deepens, the gesture of sajdah (prostration) has become a form of territorial acknowledgment. I touch my head to the ground remembering my connection to the land, to all beings, and to Creator. There is a moment in the Muslim prayer where one finger is raised to signify this oneness of Creator and creation. Inclination is a remembrance of the divinity found everywhere: within and all around me, especially in nature.  

As Kabir says:

Moko kahan dhoonde re bande, main to tere paas mein,

Na main deval na main masjid, na kaaba kailas mein.

Where are you searching for me, O devotee? I am right here with you

I am not in the temple, nor in the mosque, neither in Kaaba nor in Kailash 

Forgiveness (2022): 2 mins 38 secs, single channel video

The gesture of my teenage daughter and I washing our hands together enacts a desire for healing.  In an effort to reconcile a changing, intimate relationship with my daughter, I reflected on how I unconsciously uphold oppressive structures of power, especially as a parent. How does power and intergenerational pain move through me? How do I ask for forgiveness and how can I forgive those that have harmed me? In working with efforts around reconciliation with my parents and children, I have come to realize that some things are very hard to speak. An embodied action can be more powerful than words.  

it takes friction

to create a lather

holding this body

in a slippery space

between us

vanishing

as we listen

washing

what can’t be seen

Haq’s video works are presented on the outdoor urban Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen (MPCAS), produced by grunt gallery in partnership with the City of Vancouver and Rize Alliance Properties.