Ishq-e-Zameen (Divine Love for the Land)

As part of a community-engaged artist residency at Open Space, local artist Farheen Haq is developing an evocative new dance and video series rooted in land-based devotion and cultural intersection. Collaborating closely with choreographer Hridya Bharucha, Haq is creating a series of movement works set to Sufi inspired Indian and Bollywood music that pay tribute to the native plants of lək̓ʷəŋən lands. Developed and rehearsed within the gallery space at Open Space, the project bridges South Asian diasporic expression with reverence for local ecology as a way to build relations with local lands, waters and plant relatives.

The vision for Ishq-e-Zameen is to create video art pieces, each dedicated to a specific native plant, with the inaugural work focusing on the vital and sacred kwetlal (camas). The project has already begun moving beyond the studio walls, featuring a recent performance at the W̱S͸ḴEM Ivy Project - an eco-cultural restoration initiative organized by local Indigenous artist Sarah Jim. By intertwining South Asian joy alongside the Sufi worldview of plants as physical manifestations of the divine, Haq’s upcoming work offers a striking visual and movement-based meditation on community, relationality, and land care.