Awareness and Dissent – Performance in the by-lanes

In this inaugural Nukta Art issue (Volume 1.1, 2005), Rumana Husain’s article reflects the thematic and multi-disciplinary approach to creative practice adopted by the magazine’s founders — an approach that continued to shape the publication throughout its ten years. Each issue reads almost as a call to action around questions of resistance, social change, identity, environment, and criticality. In the inaugural issue, several of these themes are taken up by Rasheed Araeen in his engagement with the work of Hanif Ramay and Sadequain, while Sangeeta Thapa’s unconventional contribution — a curated email exchange titled “Chughtai Revisited” — underscores the persistent lack of dialogue among non-Western artists.