Asia Art Archive in America was pleased to announce the public presentation by AAA-A’s Fall 2023 Artist-in-Residence Naeem Mohaiemen. Camera Silence presented Mohaiemen’s research, linking Asia Art Archive’s holdings of photo books around the Vietnam War to the itinerant output of Indian photojournalist Harmit Singh who documented the final days of the 1971 Bangladesh Independence War. This research builds on earlier stages of Mohaiemen’s  project which was supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation, Toronto Metropolitan University, and the Puffin Foundation. The presentation was followed by a conversation with Anjali Singh, the daughter of Harmit Singh.

AAA-A Artist-in-Residence program supports research, development, and/or execution of new creative work in response to Asia Art Archive in America’s digital and physical archive and collection. The nomination-based, three-month residency of which Mohaiemen was the inaugural grantee culminates in this public presentation in which the artist shared the findings and result of his research. 

Naeem Mohaiemen

Naeem Mohaiemen researches forms of utopia-dystopia after 1945, beginning from South Asia and radiating outwards into the Islamicate World. He is author of Midnight’s Third Child (2023) and Prisoners of Shothik Itihash (2014); editor of Chittagong Hill Tracts in the Blind Spot of Bangladesh Nationalism (2010); and co-editor with Eszter Szakacs of Solidarity Must be Defended (2023). He is Head of Photography Concentration at the School of Arts, Columbia University. 

Anjali Singh

Anjali Singh is a literary agent best known for having championed Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis. She represents, among others, Susan Abulhawa, author of Mornings in Jenin and Against the Loveless World; Nawaaz Ahmed, author of the PEN-Faulkner finalist Radiant Fugitives; and Mai Al-Nakib, author of An Unlasting Home. Her graphic novel list includes Rebecca Hall and Hugo Martinez’ Wake: The Hidden History of Women-led Slave Revolts and Deena Mohamed’s Shubeik Lubeik.

AAA-A Artist-in-Residence program is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.