There is a profound vulnerability in returning to a space you once abandoned. For architect and artist Muneeb Ali Khan, his solo exhibition ‘Heda’a Kaar’ represents exactly that: a return to a sanctuary within the heart. It is a grounding mechanism against the rigid, concrete demands of everyday life.

Hosted at Studio B2 in Islamabad, a venue owned by Fatima Hamid, the exhibition features 29 intricately stippled pieces. Utilising a careful mix of pen, pencil, watercolour, felt-tip marker and a distinct dash of ashwood veneer, Khan has mapped out a cartography of personal history, societal critique and spiritual reflection.

The exhibit’s title sets a hauntingly beautiful tone. The expression heda‘a kaar is a linguistic hybrid that blends an Arabic root with a Persian suffix to honour the oral tradition of Alheda’a, which is used in Saudi Arabia by herders to direct camels through the desert. It invokes the image of a lonely traveller in a vast desert, humming a rhythmic song to his camel companion so that, in the absolute darkness of the night, their heartbeats synchronise against the solitude.

For Khan, these paintings are a representation of that very synchronicity. After having spent years navigating the corporate grids of architectural........

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