Artist Umber Majeed presents a thought-provoking lecture performance that delves into the intersections of military-state surveillance, global capital, and speculative urban development through the narrative of Trans-Pakistan, a former tourism company owned by the artist's maternal uncle. Using family archives, performance, and visual media, Majeed explores Pakistan's corporate mega-developments, where replicas of global monuments symbolize privatization, nationalism, and surveillance. The lecture also imagines alternative forms of occupation and resistance within increasingly monitored urban landscapes.
Umber Majeed (b. New York, 1989)
is a multidisciplinary visual artist and educator. She received her MFA from Parsons the New School for Design in 2016 and graduated from Beaconhouse National University in Lahore, Pakistan in 2013.
Her writing, performance, and animation work engage with familial archives to explore Pakistani state, urban, and digital infrastructure through a feminist lens. Majeed’s solo exhibitions include; ‘In the Name of Hypersurface of the Present’, Rubber Factory, New York (2018) and ‘Trans-Pakistan Zindabad (Facts about the Earth)’, 1708 Gallery, Richmond, Virginia (2021), ‘Made in Trans-Pakistan’, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn, NY (2022), and J😊Y TECH, Queens Museum, NY (2025-6). She has shown internationally in group exhibitions at Hayy Jameel, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia (2024); the Asian Art Biennial at the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan (2021); Ishara Art Foundation, Dubai, UAE (2019); the Karachi Biennale, Karachi, Pakistan (2017), among others. Majeed is a recipient of numerous fellowships including the HWP Fellowship, Ashkal Alwan, Beirut, Lebanon (2017), Refiguring Feminist Futures Web Residency, Akademie Schloss Solitude & ZKM, Germany (2018), the Digital Earth Fellowship, Hivos, the Netherlands (2018-19), Technology Residency, Pioneer Works, Brooklyn (2020), QM-Jerome Fellowship (2024), ISCP Pollock-Krasner Fellowship (2025), and Eyebeam Fellowship (2026). Her work has been acquired by several private collections, including the Lekha and Anupam Poddar Collection at the Devi Art Foundation in Gurgaon, India. She lives and works in New York, USA and Lahore, Pakistan.
Sarah Burney
is an independent curator and writer based in New York.
Raised in Kuwait and Pakistan, Burney is a specialist of contemporary printmaking and contemporary art from South Asia. She is interested in exploring artists’ materials and processes and diversifying discussions in contemporary art. Her recent and forthcoming curatorial projects include Krishna Reddy: Heaven in a Wildflower (Print Center New York, 2025), Zarina: Directions to my House (STPI Singapore, 2026), and Chitra Ganesh: Impressions of Mythic Futures (Sidney and Lois Eskenazi Museum of Art at Indiana University, 2027) Her writing and curatorial work is informed by the variety of perspectives Burney has gained in the field, including the studio of Zarina, the Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, the South Asian Women’s Creative Collective, and the Guerrilla Girls. She serves on the Board of Trustees for Print Center New York.